Antique Arms & Militaria

Original Ancient Roman ‘Cross-bow” Fibula Bronze Toga Pin Military Issue, Fine Piece For Higher Ranking Figures in the Legion, Such As a Centurion or Tribune

Bow Fibula with a folded or rolled sleeve hinge, c. Early Imperial - Beginning of 2nd Century. We acquired a very small collection of roman toga pins, from super, small collection of original, historical, Imperial Roman and Crusader's artefacts
Shaped in the form of a roman military crossbow fibula, in bronze.
It became the most popular form of closure for Roman fibulae, and is characteristic of the bow brooches from the early imperial times to the beginning of the 2nd century. Outside the Roman Empire and after that time, this type of hinge was seldom used. The sleeve hinge consists of a small sleeve at the top of the head which is forged from a square sheet metal plate and then rolled up. In a center-cut slot, the spiked needle is inserted and held by a shaft (usually iron) passing through the whole sleeve. At the ends of each of the Aucissa fibulae and their early successors were buttons holding the hinge axis; later, the hinge axis was clamped in the sleeve and needed no buttons. The needle always carries a thorn-like projection on its perforated oval plate, which beats against the head of the fibula and, by virtue of this resistance, causes the suspension to spring forth. The sleeve hinge is used exclusively in bow fibulae. The needle is primarily rectilinear, but bends hand in hand with the flattening of the bow to the outside to continue to leave enough space between the bracket and needle. The sleeve hinge is considered a typical Roman construction. The paludamentum was usually worn over one shoulder and fastened with a fibula (ancient version of a safety pin). Arguments abound over what shoulder was exposed, but it seems fairly clear that the garment was fastened loosely enough to move around, The paludamentum was a cloak that was specifically associated with warfare. A general donned one for the ceremonial procession leading an army out of the sacred precinct of the city of Rome and was required to remove it before returning to the city…a sign that he was no longer a general, but a common citizen. The paludamentum or sagum purpura (purple cloak) was the iconic red cloak worn by a Roman general (Legatus) and his staff officers. Originally, it’s distinctive red/purple color clearly delineated between these officers and the rest of the army, which sported the sagum gregale (cloak of the flock). Although the sagum gregale, worn by the rank and file, started out the color of the flock (i.e. undyed wool), it seems likely to have transitioned to a coarser version of the sagum purpura by the imperial period (27BCE – 476CE). Outfitting the entire army in red garments would have been a mark of the great wealth of Rome – well, that and the fact that the Romans controlled the source of purple dye by then.The pin is now frozen through two millennia in a fixed position. Fibula 47mm x 22mm [not incuding pin] 68mm long x 22mm including the pin extended  read more

Code: 23985

Another Reason To Visit Brighton-by-the-Sea This Summer. To Visit the Magnificent Pavilion Palace & View ‘The Encampment At Brighton’, by Francis Wheatley, RA, 1747-1801. Which We Were Most Proud To Assist & Enable It’s Donation to Brighton 50 Years Ago

Two years ago we celebrated the completion of a multi million pound three year restoration of the main saloon in the Royal Pavilion palace in Brighton, and we are continually humbled to know that our family donation enabled the premier work of art, of a depiction of an hussars regiment, encamped in the hills above Brighton, by Francis Wheatley RA, and thus to be saved for posterity for the Brighton Museum collection.
Possibly their most famous work of art, certainly one of their best. 'The Encampment at Brighton', is a major work by Francis Wheatley RA (1747?1801). (b London, 1747; d London, 28 June 1801). A most fine English painter of his day in the reign of King George IIIrd. His early works were mainly small full-length portraits and conversation pieces in the manner of Zoffany. In 1779 he moved to Dublin to escape creditors, and after his return to London in 1783 his work broadened in scope. It included landscapes, history paintings, and life-size portraits, but he is best known for works produced to be engraved for the Georgian print market. His works now reside in the government collection, the Royal Collection and many of the finest museums and collections around the country.
We were delighted to have enabled its acquisition, back in 1973, and over the past few decades we have been pleased to know of its permanent presence in the City collection, saved for posterity and enabling the museums visitors to view this magnificent work based and painted in Brighton in the 1790's.
Any visitors to Brighton this summer, who make a visit to our world famous store, The Lanes Armoury, ought to consider visiting Brighton Museum as part of your visit, in order to view its superb collection, and especially visit our magnificent Royal Pavilion, former summer palace of King George IVth, {former the Prince Regent} donated to Brighton by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and considered today, by many, to be the most wonderful palace of its kind in the world.

A joyous combination of Indo-Chinese architecture and fine art. A magnificent example of the Royal Family’s diversity, 200 years before the word even became known, and as so significant as it is today.

Brighton has been for centuries a long exponent of diversity, and without doubt certainly one of the best most loved and diverse cities in the entire world. For example, during World War I, the Royal Pavilion palace’s royal stables, that later became the world famous Dome Theatre, was turned over to become a hospital for the desperately wounded, heroic, Indian, volunteer soldiers, it is said that many Indian soldiers when they recovered consciousness and awoke in the palace, believed they had died and gone to heaven, which was a recreation of an Indian Palace.
It was almost 60 years later The Dome Theatre was the host venue of ABBA’s very first public explosion on to the world stage, in fact Mark, {the Lanes Armoury’s elder partner} was coincidentally there in person, just outside the stage area, listening to their very first hit, Waterloo, {somewhat ironic with our Waterloo interest} at the Eurovision Song Contest over 50 years ago.

The Royal Pavilion contains some of the finest and most magnificent Chinoiserie works of art to seen anywhere in the world. Some of the original Prince’s treasures were, very recently, just returned from the Buckingham Palace Royal Apartments, to be once more placed on display in the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, as one of the last, and personal benevolent instructions of Her Late Well Beloved Majesty Queen Elizabeth IInd. In order that once more, our city, and it’s millions of visitors, can enjoy the fabulous royal treasures in their original, former, location, the magnificent home of the Prince Regent.

Somewhat like us at The Lanes Armoury, the Royal Pavilion is certainly not one of the largest of the world’s Royal Palaces, in fact, it is possibly one of the smallest, but it is considered, by many, to be the very best.

We also show in the gallery a painting by Richard {Dickie} Compton, commissioned by our family from the artist, of our Holland & Holland, London to Bath and Wells, Royal Mail Road Coach, passing in front of the statue of The Prince Regent, which itself is in front of the Royal Pavilion. The road coach, later photographed, still in use in 1969, outside of the gates to the Royal Pavillion, and the oil painting are part of the late Camilla Hawkins Collection.

As like many Brightonians, our personal family connections to the palace go back since it was first built, over two hundred years ago. Our family used to supply shellfish from the shores off Brighton for His Majesty’s table {we held the shellfish concession for many decades in the 18th and 19th century}. A family member worked in the staff -a very lowly position naturally, bearing in mind, our family history, always was, and still is, in ‘trade’, once considered by 19th century ‘society’ to be, at the time, as not particularly in much higher regard than *coster mongers-. We later owned the annex of the Royal Stables, a stable yard around 100 yards from the palace, now demolished and on the site of the current My Hotel in Jubilee Street. And in the early 1970’s Mark purchased from an elderly farmer in the North, the original huge pump organ made for the Prince Regent’s music room in the palace. But it was either never installed, or, if it was, it was not much later removed by Queen Victoria, and sold off. When Mark bought it, it had the original schematic and plans for installation, which were magnificent in their beauty and detail, somewhat like the architects plans much have been for the original palace. We offered to donate it to the Palace Trustees in the 1970’s, but it was refused as impractical to re-install, unless we paid for its installation, but the cost involved would have been prohibitively astronomical. So, we sold it to an Australian diocese instead, and apparently it was installed not much later in an Australian Cathedral.

* coster monger or hawker, A costermonger, coster, or costard was a street seller of fruit and vegetables, sometimes fish, in British towns. The term is derived from the words costard (a medieval variety of apple) and monger (seller), and later came to be used to describe hawkers in general. In fact our family name, Hawkins, was a medieval derivative from Hawker, which would therefore, have been our family trade and social position in the post Roman occupation era. Pretty low down the social scale, before our family moved to Plymouth, and our seafaring nature brought some element of success, and thus the elevation with a knighthood for Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Francis Drake, his cousin, who was later Admiral for Queen Elizabeth Ist. Drake was John’s cousin due to being adopted by William Hawkins, famed seafarer of Plymouth, and thought to have been adopted, as possibly being his bastard son.
Sir Francis Drake's heraldic achievement and coat of arms contains the motto, Sic Parvis Magna, which means: "Great achievements from small beginnings". Drake became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan, a sea route at the southern tip of South America linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans  read more

Code: 21652

A Most Elegant Equestrian Walking Stick Cum Dandy Cane

Finely carved handle of a horses hoof and fetlock. The stick is a superb close grain hardwood. Overall in super condition. Every other portrait of a Georgian, Victorian, or Edwardian gentleman, shows some nattily dressed fellow with a walking stick pegged jauntily into the ground or a slim baton negligently tucked under the elbow. The dress cane was the quintessential mark of the dandy for three centuries, part fashion accessory, part aid to communication, part weapon, and of course, a walking aid. A dandy, historically, is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.

Previous manifestations of the petit-maitre (French for "small master") and the Muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost, but the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated cynical reserve, yet to such extremes that novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined cynicism as "intellectual dandyism". Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle wrote in Sartor Resartus that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man". Honore De Balzac introduced the perfectly worldly and unmoved Henri de Marsay in La fille aux yeux d'or (1835), a part of La Comedie Humaine, who fulfils at first the model of a perfect dandy, until an obsessive love-pursuit unravels him in passionate and murderous jealousy.

Charles Baudelaire defined the dandy, in the later "metaphysical" phase of dandyism, as one who elevates esthetics to a living religion, that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking Dandyism is a form of Romanticism. Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind."

The linkage of clothing with political protest had become a particularly English characteristic during the 18th century. Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protest against the levelling effect of egalitarian principles, often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat". Paradoxically, the dandy required an audience, as Susann Schmid observed in examining the "successfully marketed lives" of Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, who exemplify the dandy's roles in the public sphere, both as writers and as personae providing sources of gossip and scandal. Nigel Rodgers in The Dandy: Peacock or Enigma? Questions Wilde's status as a genuine dandy, seeing him as someone who only assumed a dandified stance in passing, not a man dedicated to the exacting ideals of dandyism. 36.5 inches long  read more

Code: 23211

A Hugely Impressive & Beautiful, Gothic, Medieval Form Pole Or Tiller Gun, Light Cannon Size Yet Hand Portable.

1.25 inch bore iron 'cannon form' barrel, with a carved hardwood tiller, probably later, bearing a beautifully carved Tudor rose. Probably a 17th century gun, and during it's later working life it has been stored in the 18th to 19th century in the armoury of the Maharajah of Jaipur and bears the Maharajah’s armoury storage marks stamped thereon.

This type of gun is typical of many surviving from the period 1420 to around 1480. It’s a most sturdy and massive forged iron barrel made by a armoury blacksmith, mounted with a wooden pole or tiller. Some version might have had a hook on the bottom of the barrel as does this, which could be used to hook the barrel over the top of a wall or shield, or as a close-quarters weapon.

The the late medieval term used was arquebus or harkbuss meaning a hand fired gun..

This gun can be fired by a single person if it is hooked over a wall, or more easily by two people, a gunner and a calinator due to it’s weight. The earlier weapons all rely on putting a lighted match into the touch-hole by hand. The matchlock gun represented a real advance. It held the lighted match on a pivoted trigger lever (known as a serpentine). This allowed the gunner to look at his target where aiming.

This style of gun was the highest technology of the medieval era, not widespread until after 1450, and continuing until perhaps 1550, when it grew in length and became the familiar musket of the English civil wars in the 1700’s.

Barrel 31.5 inches long, barrel muzzle 2.5 inches across, tiller 18 inches, and overall 50 inches. As with all our antique guns no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables, barrel bore bears old tamper obstruction.  read more

Code: 20331

A Beautiful & Fine Quality Early Post Medieval to Early 17th Century Renaissance Wrought Iron Chest or Door Lock, German

From a Norman or Gothic carved wooden chest. Superbly crafted and engraved. We show in the gallery the types of chest to which it could have been fitted in order to make them secure. The decoration of Gothic iron locks and keys was often elaborate and of the highest standard of workmanship. The motifs were frequently drawn from Gothic architecture, reproducing on a miniature scale complicated tracery patterns and even tiny statuettes. A number of these tiny locks were compound, with some of the mechanisms concealed from view, and required two or even three keys used in sequence to open them. It has been suggested that the greatly expanded use of locks on doors, or coffrets and other types of storage chests was a result of the increasing urbanization of life and the new emphasis on material wealth and private ownership which developed in the late Middle Ages. From the 15th century on, locksmiths gained a privileged status in society. They had advanced technical skills and were master craftsmen in decoration techniques. Their main clients were town burghers, the clergy, nobility who built castles and other large residences, and the Royal Family. Ever since the Viking era (the 9th to the 11th centuries), chests and small boxes have been important personal storage places in all levels of Swedish society – from the common people to the royal families. Locks made storage more secure. The Oseberg ship was discovered and excavated in the early 1900s in Vestfold, Norway. The ship was built in the first half of the 9th century. Many items were found on board – including storage chests. Chests were generally used by the crews of the Viking ships, who sat on them to row, as well as storing things in them.

In 1936, a Viking wooden tool chest was discovered during the plowing of a field at Mästermyr on Gotland. Over two hundred iron objects were found inside and around the chest, which is 90 cm long and 24 cm high. Of particular interest in the present context is the fact that these objects included blacksmith tools as well as two large keys, lock parts, other lock hardware and three small padlocks.

King Louis XVI of France proved to be a man of very few interests and pleasures in the midst of the whirlwind of entertainment that was Versailles. One was the hunt and the other was his amateur blacksmithing.

A small forge was installed above his private library to indulge the King in his pursuit of this particular hobby. Here there were two anvils and every tool that could possibly be needed was available. As it happened, locks were of a particular interest to Louis. The room was filled with all kinds of locks: common locks, hidden locks and elaborately gilded locks. The château's blacksmith by the name of Gamin was employed to teach the King all he knew - probably in all secrecy . When he was not with the King he was in charge of all the locks at Versailles. From him we know that Louis was eager to conceal this hobby from his courtiers and his Queen which resulted in the two coming up with countless stratagems for removing and bringing in the anvils. Sadly, Gamin would eventually betray Louis during the revolution.

The court was not very approving of their King's hobby. It was thought to be a profession for the lower classes - not a a hobby for a King. Even Marie Antoinette had the occasional complain about this hobby but for a far more practical reason: the work left the King's hands blackened and he would often visit her without washing them first much to the damage of her furniture.
Louis XVI seemed to have paid them little mind. Instead, he agreed with Rousseau that every man should know a manual craft. Meanwhile, the pamphleteers had a field day making the King's interest in keys and locks a fitting symbol of his ... marital problems. This would look stunning mounted or framed. Size 22.5 x 20 cm some photos appear to show its colour as greenish, this is a photographic lighting optical illusion it is in fact blackened with age  read more

Code: 23389

Scarce, Victorian, 3rd City of London Silvered Shako Helmet Plate

An extremely fine example in silver plate being a crowned eight pointed star with overlays of oak sprays and central strap 'Domine Dirige Nos' enclosing a number 3
bearing the arms of the City, over a shield and London. A rare and most collectable piece of Victorian militaria. Two loop fasteners very good condition. 4.75 inches x 3.85 inches  read more

Code: 18441

19th Century 1850's English Tranter .36 calibre Double Trigger Revolver One of the Most Favoured Revolver's of The US Civil War Confederates

The Tranter revolver is a double-action cap and ball (percussion) revolver invented around 1856 by English firearms designer William Tranter (pictured below). The original Tranter’s operated with a special dual-trigger mechanism (one to rotate the cylinder and cock the gun, a second to fire it)
The revolvers in .36 and .44 calibre were popular with Confederate troops during the American Civil War and thousands of them were shipped from Birmingham, England to New Orleans under contract to the Griswold Company.

Tranter’s most successful series of arms were his “self-cocking” revolvers, which were initially introduced in 1853. The earliest revolvers utilized Robert Adams’ patent for a solid, one-piece frame and barrel that were machined from a single forging. Tranter’s initial production run of revolvers included both Adams 1851 Patent lock works, and Tranter's own patented lock works. The original “Tranter” type revolvers, known to collectors as 1st Model Tranter or sometimes “Adams-Tranter” revolvers due to the frame marking, had no provision for a fixed loading lever. The lever swiveled on a stud that projected from the left side of the frame, which had no provision to retain the lever when it was mounted on the revolver. The lever was intended to be stored in a case or carried in the pocket; hardly a practical solution if the user actually had to reload the revolver in the field. Most of these guns were manufactured on Adams Patent frames
Famous Tranter owners

Major Heros Von Borcke, CSA
The Pinkerton Detective Agency
General J.E.B. Stuart, CSA
Capt Charles Green, CSA
Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, Scotland Yard
Sherlock Holmes
Thomas Knowles
Murder of Peter Clark

The frame, under the grip bears a serial number 7 and another matching 7 partially under the spring , and another 7 on the wooden grip. The cylinder rotates sporadically and fires on the second trigger, the left side inverted Y safety spring has a thin arm crack, single nipple lacking. No maker engravings present, with regular view and proof stamps on every cylinder and barrel, both of which are standard features on all Confederate UK contract arms,  read more

Code: 24576

16th Century Militia Man’s “Morgernstern” or "Holy Water Sprinkler"Mace Flail Possibly From Germany. Also A Weapon of The City Guard and Watchmen of Germany or Switzerland

Long wooden haft with large protruding blacksmith nail spikes. An extraordinary intimidating weapon, crude, yet incredibly effective. A rare German PoleArm known as a Morgenstern ‘morning star’ or ‘Holy Water Sprinkler’. The holy water sprinkler (from its resemblance to the aspergillum used in the Catholic Mass), was a morning star used by the English army in the sixteenth century and made in series by professional smiths. One such weapon can be found in the Royal Armouries and has an all-steel head with six flanges forming three spikes each, reminiscent of a mace but with a short thick spike of square cross section extending from the top. The wooden shaft is reinforced with four langets and the overall length of the weapon is 74.5 inches (189 cm). This kind of war flail originated as a peasant weapon and was particularly popular in Germany and central Europe, also used by city guards and watchmen in Germany and Switzerland. Typically a long wooden shaft, with cylindrical head and arrangements of iron spikes. These weapons were frequently found in German armouries, and large fortified houses, and used by local standing militias and guards. A fine example believed to have been made for Henry VIII combining a gun mechanism with the spiked head is in the Royal Armouries collection in Leeds. This example is an iconic example, the head bears a long spike and further rows below of shorter spikes, very strong and four-sided. In good stable condition, old woodworm to surface not active. Length approximately cms. Dating to the 16th century.

Morning Stars were first popularized in Germany during the fourteenth century. The name (originally Morgenstern) seems to reference the shape of the head like a star – although this is not confirmed.

The Morning Star resembles a mace, which was developed somewhat independently. As the mace transitioned to being constructed of metal, the morning star kept its wooden shaft.

There are two very impressive examples of morning stars housed in the museums of Vienna. The first measures 2.35 meters in length (7 ft 9 in) and has a separate wooden head slipped over the top of the shaft and reinforced with steel straps. The spikes are arranged asymmetrically. The second has a head entirely made of steel and four V-shaped spiked mounted o a long shaft. There are also 183 specimens in Graz, made in series in the 1600s.

Morning stars have been depicted in medieval art, carried by armoured knights. In a 1486 poem, one is mentioned and described as “a rather simple morning star with spiked mounted in an asymmetrical pattern”.

The morning star was used by both infantry and cavalry. There were three types of weapon differing in quality.

The first was a well-crafted military type used by professional soldiers and made in series by expert weapon smiths in town arsenals.

The second, this example, was used by militia men and crafted from wood fitted with nails and spikes by a local blacksmith. For this type, the shaft and head were usually made of one piece which was sometimes reinforced with an iron band.

The third type was mostly decorative, made of metal and with a shorter shaft.

Overall 83 inches 6 ft 11 inches, {211 cm}

UK mainland delivery only, by our own company courier, {due to size} allow up to 14 days for delivery. Too long to ship overseas.  read more

Code: 25245

A Noble Family Crested Victorian Officer's Artillery Cavalry Sword

Used from 1845 to around 1900. Bearing a family’s noble crest of a collared female griffon head facing sinister, and a pair of wings facing dexter, and a monogram J.D. etched with royal devices on a pair of lances and an artillery cannon, and typical florid decor.
Three bar cavalry type hilt, wirebound wood bound grip. overall russet surface.
The British Military forces have continually used artillery cannon in some form or another since the 15th century. Until 1716, they were provided by artillery trains, raised and disbanded on a campaign-by-campaign basis. But that year, King George I issued a Royal Warrant to set up two permanent field artillery companies of 100 men each. This force soon grew in size as the demand for artillery increased.

Other artillery regiments were also set up at this time, such as the Royal Horse Artillery in 1793, which provided artillery support to cavalry units. Some of these other regiments were merged into the main Royal Artillery, such as the Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery in 1801, and the artillery of the disbanded East India Company in 1862.

The Royal Regiment of Artillery and the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, as technical supporting Arms, lived in an alternative military world run by the Board of Ordnance. The commission purchase system was not extended to their officers, who were all professionally trained at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. The Gunners were organised into Field Artillery supporting the Infantry, Horse Artillery supporting Cavalry, and Garrison Artillery providing coastal defence and siege guns. Their field guns were relatively short range 6pdr and 9pdr muzzle loaders which had last seen service at Waterloo. The most commonly used all-purpose ammunition was solid iron round shot; with a direct accurate range of around half a mile for a 9pdr, it bounded along on landing like a well struck giant golf ball, to double the range on hard ground. Shrapnel, which exploded via a timed fuse, was particularly effective against massed troops in the open. Finally, Case, or Grapeshot, was the last gasp do-or-die shell; it operated at close range like a huge shotgun cartridge, scattering small projectiles forwards in all directions. Rates of fire were largely determined by the necessity for careful aim, and shortcuts on safety taken by the five man detachment. Two to three rounds per minute was generally taken as normal, and anything higher usually meant that the team were risking accidents.

Field Batteries and RHA Troops consisted of a mix of four field guns and two howitzers. Howitzers lobbed a larger shell as if from a lofted golf club onto a target, which might be hidden from sight. Howitzers did not fire round shot.

No scabbard  read more

Code: 24139

Another 180 Books Arrived on Saturday! Plus Dozens of Swords, Pistols, Arms and Armour. To Our Regulars Our Weekly E.mail Sendouts Resumed Today

We have simply had too little time to list, catalogue and photograph all our new additions.

New items arriving including several original US Civil War revolvers and sabres, a jolly rare piece of WW2 Section XII SOE sabotage kit, an amazing presentation huge leather bound tome filled with paintings of French Ancient Regime and First Empire army uniforms and swords helmets etc. A stunning collection of sword sticks of the highest quality,

We are trying our best to resume our usual latest additions send-out early this coming week. Apologies to our disappointed regulars.  read more

Code: 25236