Antique Arms & Militaria

A Scarce Volunteer Artillery Officers- Busby Plume Holder Badge circa 1860 to 1873.

A rare and most collectable silver badge from the mid Victorian period. Now naturally silver age blackened but it would polish up beautifully, which we can do if required. Following the Crimean War, it was painfully clear to the War Office that, with half of the British Army dispositioned around the Empire on garrison duty, it had insufficient forces available to quickly compose and despatch an effective expeditionary force to a new area of conflict, unless it was to reduce the British Isles' own defences. During the Crimean War, the War Office had been forced to send militia and yeomanry to make up the shortfall of soldiers in the Regular Army. The situation had been complicated by the fact that both auxiliary forces were under the control of the Home Office until 1855.

Tensions rose between the United Kingdom and France following the Orsini affair, an assassination attempt on Emperor Napoleon III on 14 January 1858. It emerged that the would-be assassin, Felice Orsini had travelled to England to have the bombs used in the attack manufactured in Birmingham. The perceived threat of invasion by the much larger French Army was such that, even without sending a third of the army to another Crimea, Britain's military defences had already been stretched invitingly thin. On 29 April 1859 war broke out between France and the Austrian Empire (the Second Italian War of Independence), and there were fears that Britain might be caught up in a wider European conflict  read more

Code: 20589

A French 1830's Belltop Shako Helmet Plate 2nd Regiment

Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 - 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 as the leader of the Orleanist party. As a member of the cadet branch of the Royal House of France and a cousin of King Louis XVI of France by reason of his descent from their common ancestors Louis XIII and Louis XIV of France, he had earlier found it necessary to flee France during the period of the French Revolution in order to avoid imprisonment and execution, a fate that actually befell his father Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orleans. He spent 21 years in exile after he left France in 1793. He was proclaimed king in 1830 after his cousin Charles X was forced to abdicate in the wake of the events of the July Revolution of that year. His government, known as the July Monarchy, was dominated by members of a wealthy French elite and numerous former Napoleonic officials. He followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of the French statesman Francois Guizot during the period 1840-48. He also promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847, and he was forced to abdicate after the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848. He lived out his life in exile in Great Britain.  read more

Code: 20588

A Victorian, Stilleto Style, So-Called Prostitute’s Dagger

With very attractive pressed ivorine handle made to simulate ivory. A prostitutes dagger was so called due to their attractiveness and useful size for concealment by unaccompanied ladies abroad after dark. Of course they would never have been sold as such by retailers, and the term has entered the vernacular of collectors probably even after the time they were actually made, however, like the term 'mortuary hilted swords' that bore the engraved visage of the king in the hilt from the English Civil War, they were never actually called that until almost 200 years later. They are attractively designed elegant daggers, just such as this one, with a slender and most efficient blade. Prostitution became a major concern and a focal point for social reformers in the 19th century. Concerns were seen everywhere including the literature of notables such as Charles Dickens. He created characters (some of which may have had real life versions) like Nancy in Oliver Twist, and Martha Endell in David Copperfield.

No one knows for certain, but there were somewhere between 8,000 and 80,000 prostitutes in London during the Victorian Age. It is generally accepted that most of these women found themselves in prostitution due to economic necessity.

There were three attitudes towards prostitution – condemnation, regulation, and reformation. Dickens adopted the last and was intimately involved in a house of reform called Urania Cottage. No scabbard Blade 4.25 inches, overall 8.25 inches long  read more

Code: 24413

A Superb, Original Watercolour of a Victorian 1st Royal Dragoons NCO by H.R. Coombe

A most attractive portrait of a mounted Sergeant of Dragoons in full dress probably late Victorian. One of the non commissioned officers of one of the great historical regiments of the British Army. 14 x 19 framed picture 8.75 x 12.5 inches The regiment also fought at the Battle of Beaumont in April 1794 and the Battle of Willems in May 1794 during the Flanders Campaign. It served under Viscount Wellesley, as the rearguard during the retreat to the Lines of Torres Vedras in September 1810, and charged the enemy at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro in May 1811 during the Peninsular War. The regiment also took part in the charge of the Union Brigade under the command of Major-General William Ponsonby at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 during the Hundred Days Campaign. Captain Alexander Kennedy Clark, an officer in the regiment, captured the French Imperial Eagle of the 105th Line Infantry Regiment during the battle.

In 1816 a detachment of the regiment was involved with suppressing the Littleport riots.

Rough Rider Robert Droash of the 1st Royal Dragoons after serving in the Crimean War in 1856
The regiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Yorke, also took part in the charge of the heavy brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 during the Crimean War. Having been re-titled the 1st (Royal) Dragoons in 1877, the regiment also saw action at the Battle of Abu Klea in January 1885 during the Mahdist War. In January 1900, during the Second Boer War, the regiment was part of a force that set out to discover the western flank of the Boer lines. It was able to ambush a column of about 200 Boers near Acton Homes and successfully trapped about 40 of them. Following the end of the war, 623 officers and men of the regiment left South Africa on the SS Kildonan Castle, which arrived at Southampton in October 1902.

The regiment, which had been serving at Potchefstroom in South Africa when the First World War started, returned to the UK and than landed at Ostend as part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade in the 3rd Cavalry Division in October 1914 for service on the Western Front.[9] It took part in the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914, the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, the Battle of Loos in September 1915 and the advance to the Hindenburg Line in 1917  read more

Code: 22549

An Original, Beautifully Executed, Watercolour of a 19th Century Officer Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

485mm x 379mm frame size. Signed by the artist H Reginald Coombes. A very well painted piece in good condition and most charming style, of one of the officers of one of the great historical regiments of the British Army. The First Battalion of the 27th distinguished itself at the Battle of Maida in Southern Italy in 1806, and together with the Second and Third Battalions formed part of the Peninsula Army, which under the Duke of Wellington cleared Spain and Portugal of the French between the years 1809 and 1812, and finally entered France in triumph. There is not space enough here to recount all the details of the Regiment’s doings in the campaign but the names Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse emblazoned on the Colours are sufficient testimony that it played a not undistinguished part therein.

The 27th was the only Irish infantry regiment (out of eight in the army) to fight at the Battle of Waterloo on the 18th June 1815, where the Emperor Napoleon was finally overthrown and his dreams of world-domination dispelled forever. It is perhaps its most cherished battle-honour as there it held a position of vital importance against great odds the whole day and in after years was acknowledged by the Duke of Wellington to have saved the centre of the line.

After a period of peace it found itself in South Africa where between 1837 and 1847 it was engaged in several of the numerous native wars that occurred during those years. From 1854 and 1868 it served in India taking part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny and helping to preserve law and order in North-West India. In 1881, as a result of the reforms begun in 1870, the Twenty-Seventh became the First Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and a Second Battalion (descended from an East India Company Regiment, the Third Madras Europeans, later the Hundred and Eighth Regiment of the Queen’s Service) came into being; at the same time three Regiments of Irish Militia became the Third, Fourth and Fifth Battalions.

The Second Battalion saw service in the great uprising of the Pathan tribes in the Tirah Valley on the North-west frontier of India in 1897-98, and after the end of that campaign remained in India until January 1902 when it was sent to South Africa to take part in the closing stages of the Boer War. The First Battalion reached South Africa in November 1899 and was part of General Buller’s army sent to lift the siege of Ladysmith. Its first actions were at the battle of the river crossing at Colenso. Some months later, at Inniskilling Hill, the battalion’s Medical officer was awarded a Victoria Cross for rescuing a wounded officer whilst under heavy enemy fire. From late in 1901 to the end of the war in 1902 the battalion constructed and occupied numerous sections of the block-house line which divided the country into large areas surrounded by wire with fortified posts at intervals. Within these areas mounted troops drove the Boers on to the wire fences, where, being caught between two fires, they were forced to surrender.  read more

Code: 22548

Rifle Brigade Victorian OR’s Helmet Plate

An excellent example, die-stamped blackened on two loops. Within a laurel wreath surmounted by a Guelphic Crown resting on a tablet inscribed Waterloo, a Maltese cross with lions between the arms and ball finials to the tips. The arms of the cross bear numerous honours; the wreath bears honours Sevastopol Alma Inkerman. Between the bottom arm of the cross and the wreath, three scrolls Lucknow over Peninsula with Ashantee below; across the base of the wreath, a scroll The Prince Consort’s Own’
9.5cm high  read more

Code: 18569

A Very Good Late Georgian Press-Gang Persuader Cosh

With a beautifully patinated turned walnut handle, rope linkage and turned walnut knob top. These scarce clubs are most attractive and extremely effective. The type used on press gangs and boarding raids by the boatswain. The persuader-cosh continued to be useful in all manner of areas right into and through the Victorian era, both on land and Sea. The Impress Service (colloquially called the "press-gang") was formed to force sailors to serve on naval vessels. There was no concept of "joining the navy" as a fixed career-path for non-officers at the time, since seamen remained attached to a ship only for the duration of its commission. They were encouraged to stay in the Navy after the commission but could leave to seek other employment when the ship was paid off. Impressment relied on the legal power of the King to call men to military service, as well as to recruit volunteers (who were paid a bounty upon joining, unlike pressed men). Seamen were not covered by Magna Carta and "failure to allow oneself to be pressed" was punishable by hanging, although the punishment became less severe over time.

In Elizabethan times a statute regulated impressment as a form of recruitment, and with the introduction of the Vagabonds Act in 1597 men of disrepute (vagrants) found themselves drafted into service. In 1703 an act passed limiting the impressment of men under 18 years of age to those who were not apprenticed. A further act in 1740 raised the maximum age to 55. Although no foreigner could normally be pressed, they lost their protection if they married a British woman or had worked on a British merchant ship for two years. Some governments, including Britain, issued "protections" against impressment which protected men had to carry on their person at all times; but in times of crisis the Admiralty would order a "hot press", which meant that no-one remained exempt.

The Royal Navy also impressed seamen from inbound British merchant ships at sea, though this was done by individual warships, rather than by the Impress Service. Impressment, particularly press gangs, became consistently unpopular with the British public (as well as in the American colonies), and local officials often acted against them, to the point of imprisoning officers from the Impress Service or opposing them by force of arms. The cord linkage is present but now a little frayed at the handle join  read more

Code: 17644

A Wonderful Georgian ‘Grand Tour’ or Campaign Travelling Miniature Foldaway Corkscrew and Hook

In delightfully blued steel and only 3.25cm long when folded. Made to be used with very small, corked, glass bottles containing everything from gun oil, for gun cases, to writing ink, poisons or colognes. And as a button hook for shoes, riding boots or gaiters. It could be contained in a travelling officer and gentleman’s gun case, campaign toilette case, sabretache or even waistcoat pocket. It would make a delightful additional accessory for a cased set of duellers, a single pistol or hunting guns. Circa early 1800’s  read more

Code: 17412

A Very Good Pair of Early Victorian Crimean War, British Dragoon Tunic Shoulder Scales

Epaulette is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. Epaulettes bear some resemblance to the shoulder pteruges of ancient Roman military costumes. However their direct origin lies in the bunches of ribbons worn on the shoulders of military coats at the end of the 17th century, which were partially decorative and partially intended to prevent shoulder belts from slipping. These ribbons were tied into a knot which left the fringed end free. This established the basic design of the epaulette as it evolved through the 18th and 19th centuries.

From the 18th century on, epaulettes were used in the French, British and other armies to indicate rank. The rank of an officer could be determined by whether an epaulette was worn on the left shoulder, the right shoulder or on both. Later a "counter-epaulette" (with no fringe) was worn on the opposite shoulder of those who wore only a single epaulette. Epaulettes were made in silver or gold for officers, and in cloth of various colours for the enlisted men of various arms. By the early eighteenth century, epaulettes became the distinguishing feature of an officer, leading to officers of military units without epaulettes to petition their government for the right to wear epaulettes, to ensure that they would be recognized as officers. Certain cavalry specialties wore flexible metal epaulettes referred to as shoulder scales such as these. During the Napoleonic Wars and subsequently through the 19th century, grenadiers, light infantry, voltigeurs and other specialist categories of infantry in many European armies wore cloth epaulettes with wool fringes in various colours to distinguish them from ordinary line infantry. "Flying artillery" wore "wings", similar to an epaulette but with only a bit of fringe on the outside, which matched the shoulder seam. Heavy artillery wore small balls representing ammunition on their shoulders.  read more

Code: 18972

A Scarce Pattern, Edwardian Army Service Corps Helmet Plate

This is not the standard type used from 1902 as they are gilt and have an upright capitalised type font. The Canadian version is very similar but with the word Canada below within asmall scroll, and again, gilt, whereas this example is white metal. Two lugs remaining. The officers and men of the ASC ? sometimes referred to in a joking way as Ally Sloper?s Cavalry ? were the unsung heroes of the British Army in the Great War. Soldiers can not fight without food, equipment and ammunition. They can not move without horses or vehicles. It was the ASC?s job to provide them. In the Great War, the vast majority of the supply, maintaining a vast army on many fronts, was supplied from Britain. Using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and were one of the great strengths of organisation by which the war was won. The largest element of the ASC was the Horse Transport section.

Most Horse Transport Companies were under orders of Divisions, with four normally being grouped into a Divisional Train. Others were part of the Lines of Communication where they were variously known by subtitles as Auxiliary Supply Companies or Reserve Parks.

Soldiers who served in the Horse Transport usually had the letter T as a prefix to their number. The British Army was already the most mechanised in the world when the Great War began, in terms of use of mechanical transport. It maintained that leadership, and by 1918 this was a strategically important factor in being able to maintain supply as the armies made considerable advances over difficult ground.

All Mechanical Transport Companies were part of the Lines of Communication and were not under orders of a Division, although some (unusually known as Divisional Supply Columns and Divisional Ammunition Parks) were in effect attached to a given Division and worked closely with it. Those in the Lines of Communication operated in wide variety of roles, such as being attached to the heavy artillery as Ammunition Columns or Parks, being Omnibus Companies, Motor Ambulance Convoys, or Bridging and Pontoon units.

Soldiers who served in the Mechanical Transport usually had the letter M as a prefix to their number.  read more

Code: 20295