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Nation : -
Local Price : £695.00

Scarce Presentation 1853 Hampshire Yeomanry Sword. EL6776 - This is a highly unusual, perhaps unique, modified 1853 pattern cavalry sword. The grip and pommel have been altered, to give a better grip and hand stop, and a new pommel has been added, changing the point of balance. Etched on the blade is the presentation text, "Sergeant Ridgeley, HYC (Hampshire Yeomanry Cavalry), presented by Captain Fleming". Captain Fleming appears in the records of

Nation : British
Local Price : £685.00

British 1885 Pattern Troopers Sword. British 1885 pattern cavalry trooper sword. Steel bowl guard with Maltese cross pierced to the centre, regimental stamps to the inside for the 12th

Nation : British
Local Price : £685.00

Victorian 27th LRV Officers Sword. Victorian 27th LRV Officers Sword. Levee weight sword with brass gilt hilt with folding side guard, fish skin grip, leather liner and sword knot both showing age wear. The blade slightly curved engraved with 27 LRV, Victorian crown and initials J R B the reverse with V R and crown plus regimental badge and motto, Tutus in undis. Complete with two scabbards, parade and field both in poor condition please see images Overall length 37.5 inch the blade 32.5 inch maker marked Joel Edwards and Sons Hanover Street London

Nation : British
Local Price : £950.00

British WW2 1925 Pattern Royal Air Force Officer's Sword of Group Captain David Lumgair CBE. Straight single-fullered spear-pointed blade. Brass hilt with pierced and cast decoration including the crown and cypher of King George VI and the crown & eagle badge of the Royal Air Force within an oval. Brass ferrule, brass backstrap, integral pommel in the form of an eagle’s head. Wire-bound white shagreen grip, white leather washer, blue and gold parade sword knot with acorn. Black leather scabbard with brass throat, chape and middle pieces, hanging rings on the throat and middle pieces. Black leather sword bag, blue and gold sword belt with brass buckle cast with the RAF badge and motto ‘PER ARDUA AD ASTRA’ within a laurel wreath. Blade 32 3/8 inches in length, the sword 38 inches overall. The blade is etched at the ricasso on one side with a six-pointed star within which is set a brass proof slug stamped with ‘PROVED’ and a fleur de lys. The blade is further etched with banners and foliate motifs, centred around the royal coat of arms on one side, and the crown & eagle of the Royal Air Force on the other. There is a cartouche for the optional etching of the owner’s name, within which is etched ‘DAVID LUMGAIR 2 ND JUNE 1930’. George VI’s reign did not begin until 1936 and the etching does not appear to have been applied retrospectively, so it would seem that this sword was rehilted at some point in its owner’s career to bring the cypher up to date with the current monarch. This was not mandatory as previous cyphers were generally accepted on parade and could be seen as a mark of long service. David Lumgair Jr was born in 1907 in Liscard, Cheshire, now a part of Wallasey. His family relocated from Cheshire to the Isle of Man in the 1920s, where he attended King William’s College from 1920-23 and while there became a cadet in the school’s OTC unit. The Officers’ Training Corps were established in 1908 as part of the wide-ranging Haldane Reforms to the British Army’s structure. They were intended to alleviate the shortage of trained officers in the various volunteer units (Militia, Yeomanry, Volunteer Force and Reserve of Officers) by forming a system of junior training units in public schools and senior ones in universities. Some of the junior OTCs were formed out of existing school Cadet Corps, but many were new. The contingent at King William’s College was established in 1911. Thousands of OTC recruits gained commissions in the regular Army during the First World War but King William’s College was the only OTC contingent to itself see active duty, its cadets tasked with guarding prisoners of war sent to the island. In December 1925 David joined the 4 th /5 th (Earl of Chester's) Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment as a 2 nd Lieutenant. This was part of the Territorial Force of part-time volunteers attached to regular regiments as additional battalions. David resigned his commission with the Cheshire Regiment in June 1930 and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force the next day, joining the Accountant Branch at the rank of Pilot Officer. This matches the date etched on the blade, and the sword would most likely have been ordered upon his commission as part of his new uniform. In June 1931 he was promoted to Flying Officer and in June 1937 to Flight Lieutenant, which would have been his rank upon the outbreak of WW2. In June 1940 David was promoted to temporary Squadron Leader. His youngest brother Ranulph was killed in 1943 fighting with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Tunisia, leading an assault on a German artillery post at the Battle of Hunts Gap. In 1944 David was made a war substantive Squadron Leader and temporary Wing Commander – his seniority as a Squadron Leader was later set from June 1945. The Accountant Branch was a dedicated specialist unit within the Royal Air Force dedicated to its financial administration, including pay, allowances, contracting and management of funds. Consistent with the other specialist branches (Legal, Medical, Dental, Stores and Chaplains) its officers held commissioned rank and underwent specialist training at the Accountant Officer’s School. Specialist officers were not trained pilots, however, which in the interwar period limited their promotion ceiling to Head of their respective branch, while pilot-trained ‘General Duties’ officers who made up the bulk of the service were eligible for operational command at the highest levels of the service. During WW2 there was some criticism of the Accountant Branch as wasteful of manpower, although it did not stand out among similar offices in the other forces. Efforts were made to release men from it for other duties, but the expansion of the Air Force created a great deal of accounting work to be done and the government recognised that proper resource management in the services required good accountancy. As of September 1945, 2,006 R.A.F. officers and 8,016 airmen were serving there, as well as 127 officers and 4,864 airwomen of the W.A.A.F. These numbers were drawn down and the system of military finance substantially restructured in the following decades: today the senior finance role in the RAF is held by the Director of Resources, a civilian, with wider support and administration duties pertaining to the Air Force carried out by civilian staff and/or specialist finance officers within the wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) structure. Remaining with the Air Force after WW2, David was promoted to Group Captain in 1949, and he served as Station Commander of RAF Digby from 1949 to 1952. Notably the promotion ceiling on specialist officers appears to have broken down by this point. In 1953 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal while serving at Headquarters of the 2 nd Tactical Air Force. As of 1958 he was Air Officer Commanding at the headquarters of No. 90 (Signals) Group, based at RAF Medmenham in Buckinghamshire. Also titled RAF Signals Command, this was a radar, telecommunications and electronic warfare unit - it was absorbed into the new RAF Support Command in 1973 and exists today as a tactical communications, network and cyber operations unit. David was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1959 Birthday Honours. David retired from the service in 1961 and in his retirement became an ordained minister, training at the Edinburgh Theological College and serving a curacy at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. He took up the vicarage of Stanton on the Isle of Man briefly in 1970, then became chaplain of St Vincent’s Chapel in Edinburgh and Dean of the Order of St Lazarus from 1975 to 1977. He is commemorated in a stained glass window in St Vincent’s Chapel which includes the badge of the RAF and the Lumgair family coat of arms. David died in 1991 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. The only Pattern of sword introduced for the Royal Air Force, the 1925 Pattern is based on the 1897 Pattern Infantry Officer’s Sword, but with decorative elements added which are more in line with the Navy such as its white shagreen grip, black leather scabbard and brass fittings. The blade’s finish is excellent with only the tiniest spots of light patination, its etching crisp and clear retaining the contrast between the matt acid-etched background and the reflective polished designs within it, no damage to its unsharpened edge or notable wear generally. The shagreen of the grip is all intact with no handling wear, its wire binding is all present and tight. Light and lustrous patination to all brass parts, including on the scabbard. The scabbard leather is in excellent condition with no dents, creases or abrasion, all of its stitching is intact. No fray to the sword knot.

Nation : British
Local Price : £945.00

A Most Rare, Original, Late 18th Century Spanish Heavy Dragoon Cup Hilt Sword of the Napoleonic War Peninsular Campaign. An I8th Century or Earlier Form Spanish Rapier Hilt With a British 1796 Heavy Cavalry Ordnance Stamped Hadley Contract Blade. This is simply a fascinating and intriguing sword in that in it's service working life it has had a wide 1796 British Heavy cavalry trooper's sword blade, stamped and made by Ordnance contractor, Hadley of 47 Bull St. Birmingham, and supplied by their British allies. The hilt is actually a design and likely made from a 1650 Spanish Toledo cup hilt rapier. Spanish cup hilt rapiers often originally had long and slender blades, however in the 18th century their blades became wider and of broadsword dimensions when used by Spanish heavy dragoons, especially in the Peninsular war from 1808, but they retained the cup hilt form of the traditional, Spanish cavalry sword. We also acquired a rare, fully standard Napoleonic Peninsular War 1808 Spanish Heavy Dragoon sword, with its wide blade, and changed hilt pattern We have never seen an original period Spanish sword mounted with a British ordnance blade before, and this is most intriguing. We conclude it was added at the time of the Spanish alliance with Britain during the Peninsular War in Spain, against Napoleon's occupying forces. Possibly supplied and given by the British, from such as the 4th Heavy Dragoons or 3rd Dragoon Guards, to their Spanish allies to replace an unsuitable narrow earlier Spanish rapier blade. The 4th Dragoons were landed between the 22nd and 27th of April 1809 at Lisbon and were brigaded with the more senior 3rd Dragoon Guards under Major General Henry Fane forming the first British Heavy Cavalry brigade in the Peninsular War. The sword's cup has some original combat impact damage and field repair on one side. Traditional long quilons of the late 18th century pattern up to 1808 when the hilt design was changed and the quillons deeply curved. Crown 4 stamp to blade and maker's mark stamp on backstrap, ordnance contractor and supplier of 1796 Heavy Dragoon swords, Hadley of Birmingham. The Spanish heavy cavalry in the Peninsular campaign, such as, The Battle of Bailen Fought July 19, 1808, between 15,000 Spaniards under Castaflos, and 20,000 French under Dupont. The French were totally defeated with a loss of over 2,000 men, and Dupont surrendered with his whole army. The Battle of Bailen was contested in 1808 between the Spanish Army of Andalusia, led by Generals Francisco Castanos and Theodor von Reding, and the Imperial French Army's II corps d'observation de la Gironde under General Pierre Dupont de l'Etang. The heaviest fighting took place near Bailen (sometimes anglicised Baylen), a village by the Guadalquivir river in the Jaen province of southern Spain. In June 1808, following the widespread uprisings against the French occupation of Spain, Napoleon organised French units into flying columns to pacify Spain's major centres of resistance. One of these, under General Dupont, was dispatched across the Sierra Morena and south through Andalusia to the port of Cadiz where an French naval squadron lay at the mercy of the Spanish. The Emperor was confident that with 20,000 men, Dupont would crush any opposition encountered on the way. Events proved otherwise, and after storming and plundering Cordoba in July, Dupont retraced his steps to the north of the province to await reinforcements. Meanwhile, General Castanos, commanding the Spanish field army at San Roque, and General von Reding, Governor of Malaga, travelled to Seville to negotiate with the Seville Junta a patriotic assembly committed to resisting the French incursions?and to turn the province's combined forces against the French. Dupont's failure to leave Andalusia proved disastrous. Between 16 and 19 July, Spanish forces converged on the French positions stretched out along villages on the Guadalquivir and attacked at several points, forcing the confused French defenders to shift their divisions this way and that. With Castanos pinning Dupont downstream at Andujar, Reding successfully forced the river at Mengibar and seized Bailen, interposing himself between the two wings of the French army. Caught between Castanos and Reding, Dupont attempted vainly to break through the Spanish line at Bailen in three bloody and desperate charges, losing more than 2,500 men. His counterattacks defeated, Dupont called for an armistice and was compelled to sign the Convention of Andujar which stipulated the surrender of almost 18,000 men, making Bailen the worst disaster and capitulation of the Peninsular War, and the first major defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armee. When news of the catastrophe reached the French high command in Madrid, the result was a general retreat to the Ebro, abandoning much of Spain to the insurgents. France's enemies in Spain and throughout Europe cheered at this first check to the hitherto unbeatable Imperial armies tales of Spanish heroism inspired Austria and showed the force of nation-wide resistance to Napoleon, setting in motion the rise of the Fifth Coalition against France. The Portuguese and Spanish played an important part in the war. Retrained and reorganised by Marshal William Beresford, Portugal’s soldiers fought bravely alongside those of Britain. The stubborn Spanish defence of cities and towns tied down thousands of French troops. Spanish armies, though frequently defeated, kept reappearing, forcing France to send more armies against them. French troops were also required to garrison hostile territory and wage a bitter war against Spanish and Portuguese insurgents, the ‘guerrillas’. French communications and supply lines were harassed by their raids and ambushes. By 1812, the French had over 350,000 soldiers in Iberia, but 200,000 were protecting lines of supply rather than serving as front-line troops. All of these factors meant that although on paper the French heavily outnumbered the British armies in Iberia, they were never able to concentrate enough of their troops to win a decisive victory. The continual drain on French resources led Napoleon to call the conflict the ‘Spanish Ulcer’. A picture in the gallery of an old watercolour of an officer of one of the British allies in a Spanish Heavy Dragoon regiment in the Peninsular War, with his identical broadsword bladed cup hilt sword drawn for combat. 42 inches long overall

Nation : British
Local Price : £945.00

A Hugely Impressive, Attractive and Historical, Sudan War 'Mahdi' Warrior's War Sword, a Siege of Khartoum' Period & Battle of Omdurman Kaskara. With Spectacular Blade Bearing Armourer's Stamps & Inscription "May God Bless You and Grant You Victory. The inscription is Arabic and approximately interprets to "May God Bless You and Grant You Victory" a 21st Lancer officer's souvenir. Probably the best and most historical example we have ever seen in the past 50 years thanks to its expert conservation. And it had to spend over a week in our museum conservation workshop, having highly detailed preserving and polishing undertaken by hand. As it had been in storage for likely a hundred years or more, with the Arabic inscription etched in the design It has a spectacular and huge broadsword blade with cruciform hilt, the blade has a central fuller with another fuller either side of the central one, and the blade has been struck many times with armourer's marks of crescent moons and the large Arabic inscription. In the 1880’s the Sudan, the vast land just south of Egypt, was ruled by the Khedive from Cairo. Sudan was basically occupied by native Africans in the south and Arab traders in the north. The coming of the Muslim religious leader known as the "Mahdi" unified the population into an uprising against Egypt. Britain assisted and allowed General Charles Gordon to become the Governor of Sudan on behalf of the Egyptian Khedive. The result was that after a long siege the entire Khartoum garrison, including General Charles Gordon, was butchered leading to much embarrassment for the British Government. It took 14 years, until 1898 for General Gordon to be avenged with the complete destruction of the Muslim Army at the Battle of Omdurman. In this battle In 1898 the 23 year-old Winston Churchill was serving with the 21st Lancers in the Sudan, while earning money on the side as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. While participating in the last British cavalry charge in history at the Battle of Omdurman, he witnessed the bravery of Dublin-born Victoria Cross winner, Private Thomas Byrne. He also became a skin graft donor to the officer that Byrne saved. The Mahdi army, numbering over 100,000, was made up of many tribes of various origins and used long broad swords fashioned on those the European Crusaders had carried back in the 13th and 14th centuries. These were known as Kaskaras, and were carried along with a large shield. This Broadsword, known as a Kaskara, is a lovely example of the principal weapon carried by the Mahdi's warriors. These were desert people and had modelled the broadsword on those carried by the European Crusaders in the 14th century. This particular example is of very nice quality. A fine example taken in combat from one of Britain's native adversaries. Probably 80% of examples one sees in England today are often souk or bazaar bought examples, acquired in the early to mid 20th century by British travelers and soldiers, often with pseudo German markings. This is a completely different order of merit from those. The Sudanese Wars are famously remembered in the movies too: Charlton Heston in "Khartoum" and in at least two productions of "The Four Feathers”. The close of the Victorian era was the height of the Great British Empire. A British soldier's bring back souvenir from his times on the front line. The Kaskara was a type of sword characteristic of Sudan, Chad, and Eritrea. The blade of the kaskara was usually about a yard long, double edged and with a spatulate tip. While most surviving examples are from the 19th or 20th century the best type is believed to have originated around the early 14th century and later, and may represent a localized survival of the straight, double-edged medieval Arab sword with blades acquired from Europeans. The kaskara was worn horizontally across the back or between the upper arm and thorax. According to British Museum curator Christopher Spring, "in the central and eastern Sudan, from Chad through Darfur and across to the Red Sea province, the straight, double-edged swords known as kaskara were an essential possession of most men." 34 1/2 inch blade overall 41 3/4 inches long. The scabbard's very tip has developed an inverted bend

Nation : French
Local Price : £675.00

French ANXI Model Cuirassier Sword. French First Empire ANIX Cuirassier troopers sword. Regulation four bar brass guard and pommel, showing worn inspection stamps to the knuckle-bow and "L"

Nation : British
Local Price : £675.00

British Ordnance Marked Victorian 1845 Pattern Royal Navy Boarding Cutlass. Sn 22266 -. The British Royal Navy due to its global presence and command of the sea was by far the most organised and trained of all the World major sea services and it’s edged weapons used for boarding and repelling boarders reflected this. The Royal Navy was one of the first Navies in the 18th Century to begin standardising the personal edged weapons used by ordinary seaman. Experiments during the early 1840s for a new naval cutlass design to replace the venerable 1804 Pattern resulted in a design by George Lovell, the Inspector of Small Arms, being accepted in 1842. A fire at the Tower of London destroyed early stocks and the design did not enter service in bulk until three years later, hence being termed the 1845 Pattern. It was considered very successful, handling well compared to its bulky predecessor the 1804 Pattern and being simpler to manufacture. This is a very good original Victorian 1845 Pattern boarding Cutlass (see page 248 of World Swords by Withers). Our example has the classic broad single edged 29 ½” blade (34 ½” overall). The blade is just under 1 ½” broad at its widest and the spine is 7mm width at its widest. It has the correct full steel bowl knuckle guard and ribbed steel hilt all blackened. The guard is slotted for wrist strap. The blade has some staining consistent with age & service use and has its original leather hilt washer. Near to the hilt one side of the blade has a ‘crown 13’ British ordnance inspection mark. The spine has faint indistinct partial maker’s name ‘***INGTON’ . These weapons were stored in locked racks on board ships and issued only for training or combat so are often found without scabbards. Only a small number were furnished with scabbards so that with a baldrick they could be worn for land-bound duties. Our example is without scabbard. The price for this piece of British Naval history includes UK delivery. Sn 22266 (tub armoury)