A Very Good American Allen and Thurber Pepperbox Revolver Circa 1840

Nicely engraved multi barreled revolver made by a good American maker, Allen and Thurber in Norwich Connecticut. Good tight action and in great condition for it's age. Six revolving barrels with a nipple shield. Bar hammer and fine scroll engraving on the frame. Maker marked on the hammer bar, and 1837 patent and cast steel stamped on the barrel rib. American pepperbox revolvers of that era are rarely seen in the UK these days, and pepperbox revolvers are always highly collectable, as they represent most interesting examples of the first rung on the evolutionary ladder of the modern age revolver. The pepperbox was probably the most sought after multi-shot handgun during the 1840-1850 decade, being as the Colt revolver was just gaining popularity and gearing up for serious production ?and the pepperbox was carried in substantial quantities in California during the Gold Rush era. Most likely many pepperboxes were also still being carried as personal defense weapons during the Civil War by soldiers who were not affluent enough to afford a then more conventional revolver. The Pepper-box, known as the "Gun that won the East", was the most desirable repeating handgun prior to the invention of the revolving cylinder. Its name may have been coined by Samuel Clemens. As with all our antique guns, no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables  read more

Code: 22290

Beautiful ‘Queen Anne’, London, Dragoon Officer's Long Barrel Horse Pistol, Lock Named James Barber A Most Beautiful Example.

12 inch Barrel, bearing early barrel proof stampings of A.R., the crossed sceptre gunsmith proof markings of Queen Anne, 1702-1714, stamped in the early period position, at the top of the breech of the barrel. Later on, and henceforth, proof marks were stamped on the left hand side of the breech. The pistols military furniture is all brass, with a typical officer's type short eared style skull crusher butt cap terminating with a grotesque mask the early type, from the time of King William IIIrd, before the long spurred style became fashionable in the 1740's. The lock is the early banana form, typical of the earliest 18th century long pistols, with a the good and clear name of Mr. Barbar inscribed. It has a good and responsive action. The stock is fine walnut. It has a single ramrod pipe, also typical of the early Queen Anne style. This would not be a trooper's pistol, but a officer's private purchase example, from one of the great makers and suppliers to the dragoon regiments and officers of his day, during the time of King George IInd. This pistol would have seen service during the War known as King George's War of 1744-48, in America, and the 7 Years War, principally against the French but involving the whole of Europe, and once again, also fought in America. Recognized experts like the late Keith Neal, D.H.L Back and Norman Dixon consider James Barbar to be the best gun maker of his day. Dixon states, "Almost without exception, unrestored and original antique firearms made by James Barbar of London are of the highest quality". In Windsor Castle there are a superb pair of pistols by James Barbar and a Queen Anne Barbar pistol also appeared in the Clay P. Bedford exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Barbar supplied complete dragoon pistols for Churchill's Dragoons in 1745, also guns for the Duke of Cumberland's Dragoons during 1746 to 48, and all of the carbines for Lord Loudoun's regiment of light infantry in 1745.
James was apprenticed to his father Louis Barbar in October of 1714. Louis Barbar was a well known gun maker who had immigrated to England from France in 1688. He was among many Huguenots (French Protestants) who sought refuge in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685. Louis was appointed Gentleman Armourer to King George I in 1717, and to George II in 1727. He died in 1741 .

James Barbar completed his apprenticeship in 1722 and was admitted as a freeman to the Company of Gunmakers. By 1726 James had established a successful shop on Portugal Street in Piccadilly. After his father's death in 1741, James succeeded him as Gentleman Armourer to George II, and furbisher at Hampton Court. He was elected Master of the Gunmakers` Company in 1742. James Barbar died in 1773.

The book "Great British Gunmakers 1740-1790" contains a detailed chapter on James Barbar and many fine photographs of his weapons. This lovely pistol is 19 inches long overall. It has had some past overall service restoration within the past 100 years. The mainspring, stock were replaced, as was the ramrod. But, it is often the case as this pistol may likely have seen somewhat rigorous combat service during its working life for upwards of 80 years. It is a beautiful looking pistol, and a fine looking example of the early British military pattern gunsmiths. As with all our antique guns no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables  read more

Code: 21363

A Fabulous Royal Bronze Battle Mace From 2,500 to 3,200 Years Old. From the Era of Rameses the Great of Egypt, to Darius, King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire. As Used By The Shardanas Warriors from Sardinia Who Fought for Rameses II Against the Hittite

13th-6th century BC. This is a classic style royal baton mace head of the ancient Bronze Age culture. Examples of this mace can be seen in several of the world's finest ancient Near Eastern bronze collections. The shaft is elaborately decorated with raised striking knobs of a herringbone design. This was an effective striking weapon likely used by high-ranking soldiers or royal subjects due to its extremely decorative design. In battle, maces like this were often used by commanders to display rank when giving orders in battle and leading soldiers, inspiring leadership and power. A substantial bronze cudgel and mace with tubular body, ribbed collar, flared rim and panels of raised herringbone ornament. Ist to 2nd Millennium B.C. In use it would have slotted onto a wooden haft. Items such as this were oft acquired in the 18th century by British noblemen touring the Middle East, Northern France and Italy on their Grand Tour. Originally placed on display in the family 'cabinet of curiosities', within his country house upon his return home. A popular pastime in the 18th and 19th century, comprised of English ladies and gentlemen traveling for many months, or even years, throughout classical Europe, and the Middle East, acquiring antiquities and antiques for their private collections. The use of the stone headed mace as a weapon and a symbol od status and ceremony goes back to the Upper Palaeolithic stone age, but an important, later development in mace heads was the use of metal for their composition. With the advent of copper mace heads, they no longer shattered and a better fit could be made to the wooden club by giving the eye of the mace head the shape of a cone and using a tapered handle.

Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, itself the most powerful period of Ancient Egypt.

The Shardanas or warriors from Sardinia who fought for Ramses II against the Hittities were armed with maces, exactly as this fabulous example, consisting of rounded wooden hafts with the bronze mace heads slotted upon the hafts. Many bronze statuettes of the times show Sardinian warriors carrying swords, bows and original maces.

Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of Western Asia, parts of the Balkans (Thrace–Macedonia and Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including Egypt (Mudrâya), eastern Libya, and coastal Sudan.

Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the legitimate Achaemenid monarch Bardiya, whom he later fabricated to be an imposter named Gaumata. The new king met with rebellions throughout his kingdom and quelled them each time; a major event in Darius' life was his expedition to subjugate Greece and punish Athens and Eretria for their participation in the Ionian Revolt. Although his campaign ultimately resulted in failure at the Battle of Marathon, he succeeded in the re-subjugation of Thrace and expanded the Achaemenid Empire through his conquests of Macedon, the Cyclades and the island of Naxos as well as the sacked Greek city of Eretria.

Persians used a variety of maces and fielded large numbers of heavily armoured and armed cavalry (cataphracts). For a heavily armed Persian knight, a mace was as effective as a sword or battle axe. In fact, Shahnameh has many references to heavily armoured knights facing each other using maces, axes, and swords. The enchanted talking mace Sharur made its first appearance in Sumerian/Akkadian mythology during the epic of Ninurta. Roman though auxiliaries from Syria Palestina were armed with clubs and maces at the battles of Immae and Emesa in 272 AD. They proved highly effective against the heavily armoured horsemen of Palmyra. Photos in the gallery of original carvings from antiquity in the British Museum etc.; Ashurbanipal at the Battle of Til-Tuba, Assyrian Art / British Museum, London/ 650-620 BC/ Limestone,, An Assyrian soldier waving a mace escorts four prisoners, who carry their possessions in sacks over their shoulders. Their clothes and their turbans, rising to a slight point which flops backwards, are typical of the area; people from the Biblical kingdom of Israel, shown on other sculptures, wear the same dress, on a gypsum wall panel relief, South West Palace, Nimrud, Kalhu Iraq, neo-assyrian, 730BC-727BC.
A recovered tablet from Egypt's Early Dynastic Period (3150-2613 BC) shows a Pharaoh smiting his foe with a war mace. Part of an original collection we have just acquired, of antiquities, Roman, Greek, Middle Eastern, Viking and early British relics of warfare from ancient battle sites recovered up to and around 220 years ago.

Last picture in the gallery; Ramses II A larger-than-life Ramses II towering over his prisoners and clutching them by the hair. Limestone bas-relief from Memphis, Egypt, 1290–24 BCE; in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

As with all our items it comes complete with our certificate of authenticity.


This wonderful piece would have been made and traded throughout the Western Asiatic region. 551 grams, 24cm (9 1/4").  read more

Code: 23421

Original 1930’s Third Reich Portrait of Rudolf Jordan Hitler's Personally Appointed Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg & Magdeburg-Anhalt and Former General of the SA, Gruppenfuhrer der SA. Likely Commissioned & Paid For By Adolf Hitler Personally

Most rare surviving example of the official portrait of one of Hitler’s personally appointed district political leaders known as a Gauleiter, as almost all of around 450 original, 1930’s German portraits of Hitler’s inner circle and high command are now in the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington. Each portrait could have cost up to 12,000 Reichmarks each, a most considerable sum in 1939. Approximately 114 men held the highly esteemed position of Gauleiter. Many shared a common background. Most of them, particularly during the early years, were drawn from the cadre of "old fighters" that had helped Hitler forge the Party during the Kampfzeit (Time of Struggle). The rank and power of these men was shared equally and was only four below Hitler himself. Their power was thus highly significant within the echelons of the Third Reich.

Many of these portraits were either commissioned, or acquired by Hitler personally, and they are all part of the record of Hitler and his elite commanders rise to power, in order to satisfy his determination to conquer the world and subjugate and destroy all who resisted.

No dictator can effectively govern a nation on his own. This was certainly the case with Adolf Hitler who had little time for or interest in the day-to-day regional administration of the Nazi Party.

For that purpose, he appointed his most loyal, charismatic and brutal subordinates: the ‘Little Hitlers’, officially known as Gauleiters.

Firstly, after the NSDAP gained power over Germany the Nazi Party adopted a new framework, which divided Germany into regions called Gaue. Each Gaue had its own leader, a Gauleiter. Each Gaue was then divided into subsections, called Kreise. Each Kreise then had its own leader, called a Kreisleiter. Each Kreise was then divided into even smaller sections, each with its own leader, and so on. Each of these sections were responsible to the section above them, with Hitler at the very top of the party with ultimate authority.

As almost all these oil portraits of Germany’s ‘Little Hitler’s’ were removed from Germany in 1945/6 and transported to America, it is estimated that just a very few, perhaps as few as between five or ten remained in Europe and in private hands. This is one of those tiny few. An incredibly rare example of the original, historical, visual record of the power structure organised by Hitler himself. Which makes this an incredibly rare original artifact that is an historically important representation of likely the most important and radical political events of the past thousand years. From those three decades of the 20th century that has changed the very structure of the world for all time.

The US high command in 1945/6 realised just how important it was to keep and save as many such portraits of his gauleiters as possible, as a permanent record and reminder for the future, of the monumental fight and sacrifices in order to subdue the axis powers from their schemes of world domination, during the two most significant decades of the past 300 years..

This is original portrait, in oil on canvas, of Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan (21 June 1902 - 27 October 1988). He was a Nazi Gauleiter in Halle-Merseburg and Magdeburg-Anhalt during Hitler’s socialist Third Reich. One of the notorious and prominent high command of Hitler’s Third Reich. An original Nazi oil portrait from the 1930's. Most similar in the new Aryan style of the Nazi portrait painter Fritz Erler, and his painting of 'Minister and Gauleiter Adolf Wagner', 1936. It was exhibited in the GDK, the Great German Art Exhibition, in 1939, in room 23. It was bought there by Hitler for 12.000 RM. In fact he bought two paintings by Fritz Erler: Portrait des Staatsministers und Gauleiters Adolf Wagner and Portrait des Reichsministers Fricke.

They are now in the possession of the US Army Military Center of History. Possibly this portrait was also in that exhibition with the two other Gauleiter Wagner and Frick. Erlers similar style portrait of Hitler, also painted in his SA uniform, in 1931, is currently valued for sale at 725,000 Euros. Around 450 portraits depicting Hitler and other Nazi-officials and symbols are currently stored in the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington

From 19 January 1931, Jordan was appointed Nazi Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg, and then began rising within the Party ranks, acting as member of the Prussian Landtag between April 1932 and October 1933 and being appointed to the Prussian State Council and made an SA Gruppenfuhrer. In the same year began the publication of the Mitteldeutsche Tageszeitung newspaper, led by Jordan. In March 1933 came his appointment as Plenipotentiary for the Province of Saxony in the Reichsrat and in November 1933 his election as a member of the Reichstag. On 20 April 1937, Adolf Hitler personally appointed him Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) in Braunschweig and Anhalt and NSDAP Gauleiter of Magdeburg-Anhalt. Jordan was succeeded as Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg by Joachim Albrecht Eggeling.

In the same year came Jordan's promotion to SA-Obergruppenfuhrer. In 1939, Jordan became Chief of the Anhalt Provincial Government and Reichsverteidigungskommissar (Reich Defence Commissar, or RVK) in Defence District XI. On 18 April 1944 came Jordan's last leap up the career ladder when he was appointed High President (Oberpresident) of the Province of MagdeburgIn the war's dying days, Jordan managed to go underground with his family under a false name. He was nonetheless arrested by the British on 30 May 1945, and in July of the next year, the Western Allies handed him over to the Soviets. Late in 1950 after four years in custody in the Soviet occupation zone Jordan was sentenced to 25 years in a labour camp in the Soviet Union. Only Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow managed to persuade the Soviets to reconsider Jordan's sentence, and then he was released on 13 October 1955. In the years to come, Jordan earned a living as a sales representative, and worked as an administrator for an aircraft manufacturing firm. He died in Munich. The Gardelegen massacre was the cold-blooded murder of inmates that had been evacuated from the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp and some of its sub-camps on April 3rd, 4th and 5th. Around 4,000 prisoners had been bound for the Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen or Neuengamme concentration camps, but when the railroad tracks were bombed by American planes, they had been re-routed to Gardelegen, which was the site of a Cavalry Training School and a Parachutist Training School. The trains were forced to stop before reaching the town of Gardelegen and some of the escaped prisoners had terrorized the nearby villages, raping, looting and killing civilians.

The man who is considered to be the main instigator of the Gardelegen massacre is 34-year-old Gerhard Thiele , who was the Nazi party district leader of Gardelegen. On April 6, 1945, Thiele called a meeting of his staff and other officials at which he issued an order, which had been given to him a few days before by Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan , that any prisoners who were caught looting or who tried to escape should be shot on the spot. In 1932, Nazi Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan claimed that SS Security Chief Reinhard Heydrich was not a pure "Aryan". Within the Nazi organisation such innuendo could be damning, even for the head of the Reich's counterintelligence service. Gregor Strasser passed the allegations on to Achim Gercke who investigated Heydrich's genealogy. Gercke reported that Heydrich was "... of German origin and free from any coloured and Jewish blood". He insisted that the rumours were baseless. Even with this report, Heydrich privately engaged SD member Ernst Hoffman to further investigate and deny the rumours. The last two pictures in the gallery of Jordan with Hitler and his Gaulieters at his 50th birthday examining his convertible Volkwagen Beetle, and the Erler painting of Gauleiter Wagner, bought by Hitler. 2 foot x 3 foot unframed. Water stain at the rear of the canvas. Surviving original portraits of Third Reich leaders are now very rare for at the end of the war thousands of paintings, portraits of Nazi-leaders, paintings containing a swastika or depicting military/war sceneries were destroyed. With knives, fires and hammers, they smashed countless sculptures and burned thousands of paintings. However around 8,722 artworks were shipped to military deposits in the U.S. From 1933 to 1949 Germany experienced two massive art purges. Both the National Socialist government and OMGUS (the U.S. Military Government in Germany) were highly concerned with controlling what people saw and how they saw it. The Nazis eliminated what they called Degenerate art, erasing the pictorial traces of turmoil and heterogeneity that they associated with modern art. The Western Allies in turn eradicated Nazi art. Whatever one considers about the actions of all of the entire third reich, art is art, and every piece is a representation of a portion of history, good or bad. One thing we learned very well from the tragic 1930s and 1940s is that classifying art as non-art and forbidding books or art for political reasons is a dead-end street. No matter how much one dislikes or despises the infamous despots and dictators of history, such as Hitler, Caligula, Pol Pot & Stalin, and no matter how much their depictions were used as propaganda, a painting or sculpture of them cannot be re-classified as 'non art'. This painting depicts a member of Hitler’s notorious inner circle, that for a brief period of world history very nearly placed the entire world in subjugation to the will of Germany and it’s ally Japan. It is the embodiment of why the preservation of such art can remind the thousands of its observers, for generations to come, that those people such as Rudolf Jordan, who were just ordinary looking nondescript individuals, that if left unchecked would have condemned the entire world to a nightmarish dystopia, of slavery, starvation and misery. And thanks to great leaders such as Winston Churchill, who had the talent and skill to embolden a solitary nation, racked by trepidation, facing the free world’s greatest foe alone, they were utterly routed and deposed by the near defeated and subdued great democracies. Part of the theory of Hannah Ahrend Johanna "Hannah" Arendt, 14 October 1906 - 4 December 1975 was a German-born Jewish American political theorist. Though often described as a philosopher, she rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular" and instead described herself as a political theorist because her work centres on the fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world." This portrait would nicely improve with some cosmetic restoration and cleaning.  read more

Code: 20504

A Very Fine & Most Beautiful 18th Century Royal Naval Officer’s Sword of Hunting Sword Cutlass Type. As Used By Ship's Captain's and Fleet Admirals

Gilt brass hilt with fluted wooden grip and finely engraved blade with maker mark and Solingen, and hunting scenes.

Quillon block decorated with relief hunting horn and hunting devices. Acorn finials and fluted brass pommel.

In the days of the early Royal Navy, officers carried short swords in the pattern of hunting sword cutlasses, with both straight or curved blades, fancy brass mounted single knucklebow hilts with principally stag horn or reeded ebony grips. Although initially designed to protect the huntsman from a close quarter predatory attack, or the coup de grace, they were far more popular in England for use as naval officer's swords, not as their initial design intended, as Britain had far fewer great wild beasts that might threaten a huntsman.

There are numerous portraits in the National Portrait Gallery and The National Maritime Musuem that show British Admirals such as Benbow and Clowdesly Shovel holding such swords, often originally made on the continent as was this beauty.

24.5 inches long overall.  read more

Code: 22526

18th Century 1770's Hallmarked Silver Hilted American Revolutionary War Period Officer's Sword Used By Both American and British Officers. Made by William Kinman of London

A fabulously intricate pattern of hilt with a complex geometric piercing with arabesque scrolling and cut stone patterning. It is sometimes referred to as the Boulton pattern, named after Matthew Boulton a renown London silversmith of the 18th century. The grip has silver banding interspersed with a herringbone pattern twisted silver wire. William Kinman was a leading member of the Founders Company of London was born in 1728 and is recorded as a prominent silver hilt maker. He is recorded at 8 Snow Hill for the last time circa 1781, is recorded circa 1728-1808, [see L. Southwick 2001, pp. 159-160.]. The small sword or smallsword is a light one-handed sword designed for thrusting which evolved out of the longer and heavier rapier of the late Renaissance. The height of the small sword's popularity was between mid 17th and late 18th century. It is thought to have appeared in France and spread quickly across the rest of Europe. The small sword was the immediate predecessor of the French duelling sword (from which the épée developed) and its method of use—as typified in the works of such authors as Sieur de Liancour, Domenico Angelo, Monsieur J. Olivier, and Monsieur L'Abbat—developed into the techniques of the French classical school of fencing. Small swords were also used as status symbols and fashion accessories; for most of the 18th century anyone, civilian or military, and with gentlemanly status would have worn a small sword on a daily basis.
The small sword could be a highly effective duelling weapon, and some systems for the use of the bayonet were developed using the method of the smallsword as their foundation, (including perhaps most notably, that of Alfred Hutton).

Militarily, small swords continued to be used as a standard sidearm for infantry officers. In some branches with strong traditions, this practice continues to the modern day, albeit for ceremonial and formal dress only. The carrying of swords by officers in combat conditions was frequent in World War I and still saw some practice in World War II. The 1913 U.S. Army Manual of Bayonet Drill includes instructions for how to fight a man on foot with a small sword. Small swords are still featured on parade uniforms of some corps.
As a rule, the blade of a small sword is comparatively short at around 0.6 to 0.85 metres (24 to 33 in), though some reach over 0.9 metres (35 in). It usually tapers to a sharp point but may lack a cutting edge. It is typically triangular in cross-section. This sword's blade is approx 33 inches long. I its working life the pierced oval guard has been damaged, re-affixed and repaired

A sword by this maker with a very similar hilt is preserved in the Royal Armouries Leeds, IX.3782. See Southwick 2001, p. 290-1 pls. 75-7
 read more

Code: 23950

A Beautiful, Signed Samurai Long 17th Century Katana With Very Fine Edo Period Mounts Including Fabulous Quality Hand Chisselled Silver Fuchi Kashira of Takebori Turbulent Seas and Sea Shells. Signed Hisamichi

The sword has just returned from our Japanese, trained polisher, for a final hand conservation and it look simply fabulous.

Its fabulous munuki are bound underneath the micro woven plaited tsuka-ito hilt binding, depict takebori gold and shakudo Mount Fuji, and a man running in the waves that are before Mount Fuji. The saya is black urushi lacquer with a carved buffalo horn kurigata and brown sageo wrap. The blade shows a beautiful notare based on suguha hamon, with fine hada. The nakago is signed and bears the signature, Omi no Kami Hisamichi, but not, or very unlikey to be one of the four Mashina school masters, also named Hisamichi.

Very fine signed iron plate hira-kaku-gata tsuba, but when mounted, the tsuba seppa-dai is covered by seppa (metal spacers) and the signature (mei) is not visible as usual. With a mimi {a prominant rim} and a kozuka hitsu-ana, and kogai hitsu ana, and very scarcely seen, twin holes near the rim at the bottom of the tsuba called ude-nuki ana. These represent the sun and moon and were likely used for threading a leather wrist thong to prevent dropping the sword in battle on horseback, and to tie the tsuka to the saya.

The name katana derives from two old Japanese written characters or symbols: kata, meaning side, and na, or edge. Thus a katana is a single-edged sword that has had few rivals in the annals of war, either in the East or the West. Because the sword was the main battle weapon of Japan's knightly man-at-arms (although spears and bows were also carried), an entire martial art grew up around learning how to use it. This was kenjutsu, the art of sword fighting, or kendo in its modern, non-warlike incarnation. The importance of studying kenjutsu and the other martial arts such as kyujutsu, the art of the bow, was so critical to the samurai a very real matter of life or death that Miyamoto Musashi, most renowned of all swordsmen, warned in his classic The Book of Five Rings: The science of martial arts for warriors requires construction of various weapons and understanding the properties of the weapons. A member of a warrior family who does not learn to use weapons and understand the specific advantages of each weapon would seem to be somewhat uncultivated. European knights and Japanese samurai have some interesting similarities. Both groups rode horses and wore armour. Both came from a wealthy upper class. And both were trained to follow strict codes of moral behaviour. In Europe, these ideals were called chivalry; the samurai code was called Bushido, "the way of the warrior." The rules of chivalry and Bushido both emphasize honour, self-control, loyalty, bravery, and military training.

Samurai have been describes as "the most strictly trained human instruments of war to have existed." They were expected to be proficient in the martial arts of aikido and kendo as well as swordsmanship and archery---the traditional methods of samurai warfare---which were viewed not so much as skills but as art forms that flowed from natural forces that harmonized with nature.
Some samurai, it has been claimed, didn't become a full-fledged samurai until he wandered around the countryside as begging pilgrim for a couple of years to learn humility. When this was completed they achieved samurai status and receives a salary from his daimyo paid from taxes (usually rice) raised from the local populace.

Blade 28.3 inches long, tsuba to tip.  read more

Code: 25301

The Lanes Armoury Welcomes Thousands Upon Thousands of Personal Visitors To The Store In Brighton Every Day {But Not Sundays} . Fabulous Pre-Historic, Archaic, Ancient, Antique, & Vintage Treasures, Artifacts, & Collectables Are Added Every Single Day

We are told, most generously, every single day, when the gallery-shop is open, by literally dozens of our thousands of visitors, that we are their favourite shop in the whole of the U.K. Many, when they are returning to England for another visit, tell us they make a point to make another visit to us every single time as part of their UK travels. Just the other week one of our regular visitors from China diverted his journey from Beijing to Paris, to go via London Gatwick Airport, in order to just to visit us for a couple of hours, and then return to Paris.

The story so far of the Hawkins Brothers and "The Lanes Armoury" written by Francis Taylor;

Sadly it is likely the last, true, original 'armoury' shop left in the whole of Britain. Defining the original term of an historical 'Armoury' as a building containing all forms of militaria, arms and armour, from all of the eras of mankind from the stone age culture, to all the civilizations of antiquity, both pre-history, and historic, on into the medieval, the post medieval and later, to WW1 and WW2. Effectively covering from 300,000 years b.c. until WW2. Not including their fossils of course that can be up to 100 million years old.

They were described as one of the most highly recommended visitors attractions in the whole of the UK by the New York Times. It is also regularly featured by many other world wide publications. Hundreds of thousands of tourists and regular visitors come to see them every single year, including, in the 1970's such erstwhile luminaries as President Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. They evolved their company from one of the oldest established family businesses in Sussex, spanning over 100 years, with a client base that includes museums, heads of state, presidents, princes and kings. But whether you are a movie star, a head of state or a student, all will be treated with the same courtesy and respect. Every sale is important to them, albeit a £5 badge a £5,000 rare book, or a suit of armour for £50,000.
Every day they are told that to some, this is their favourite shop in the world, with some foreign visitors returning year in year out for 40 years or even more, so they truly believe they have a great responsibility to their customers, their reputation, and to the amazing city of Brighton.
Their oldest customer has incredibly been a regular buyer, for an amazing, near 70 years.

To view just a flavour of the visual history one can view here, and their modus operandi during the past century of their business and store, please click the group photos to the left, and see just small aspects of their gallery, in photos taken recently, and from the distant past.
One is a photograph from the outside of their shop taken around 1920, another one from more recently, and another, of their 1920's vintage horse drawn pantechnichon that was still in use for local deliveries until 1969 and another photo one of their 'more modern' pantechnichons in the 1970's. The partners, Mark and David also regularly appear on the BBC and numerous UK TV channels, consulting on historical documentaries, and on various antique 'discovery' programs, and act as consultant appraisers and for notable private individuals and public companies. During Mark's 54 years personally trading in The Lanes, and David's 44 years {that's around 98 years combined} both within the family businesses, it is estimated they have had pass through their hands, and appraised, possibly more items than any other living dealers in the country, and their breadth of knowledge and experience is simply astonishing. While in his capacity as export director of the old family company, Mark was personally responsible for the sale and export of over 2,000 individual antique items every single week for nearly ten years. Shipping their treasures within a fleet of trucks and 40 foot container lorries, to the four corners of globe. If you can get Mark to describe some of his past professional trades, you will certainly be amazed. Just one part of his trade, back in the 1970’s was the selling and shipping of vintage classic cars to the States. Dozens of 20 foot containers were sent, containing either a vintage Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lagonda, Alvis, Aston Martin, and their like, with the interiors packed full of antique porcelains and silver and antique furniture stacked on top {in order to utilise every valuable space possible}. Mark’s first personal car was a BRG 1932 Aston Martin Le Mans. Originally raced by Sir Sydney Caffyn as an amateur {who was a friend of Mark’s father David senior}, which Mark bought from Sir Sydney’s brother, some while after Sir Sydney had died, for which he paid the princely sum of £325 in around 1971. He sold it to an Italian-American Las Vegas casino owner for £800 three years later, The last known example he knew of, the Aston Martin 1932 Le Mans LM8, and that he tried to buy {unsuccessfully I might add}, sold recently for €905,000 at Sothebys {somewhat in excess of Mark’s budget}. How times {and prices} have changed!

Of course, these days, after selling their wholesale antique export shipping companies, that were some of the largest of their kind in Europe, for the past 35 years the brothers have concentrated their devotion to being England's leading specialist antique arms and militaria dealers, focusing their core business from general antiques and fine art, to the finest, ancient, antique or vintage samurai weaponry, armour, and worldwide swords, firearms and militaria and historical books, covering the past three millennia. It is now said they are the largest samurai weapon dealers in the western world, and this website is the largest of it's type in the world, including over 17,000 full colour photographs of some of their items for sale.
A recent article, written about their business on 'City News Live' is copied here below, as published;**
"With so many different histories to offer, you can feel freer in Brighton than in most British cities to select trips which coincide with your interests and of course, you're much more likely to find in Brighton things to do which bring the history you love to life. For the lover of militaria, a visit to The Lanes Armoury is a must with a difference. The Armoury's housed in a three-storey 16th century building and is a real treasure trove, it's a museum which is not a museum as everything is for sale. It has been nominated and then short-listed for the British Antique & Collectors Awards as the best Antique Shop in Great Britain and is the latest incarnation of a much older business David Hawkins Brighton Ltd which was one of the earliest and largest dealers in Antiques and Collectibles within the whole of Europe in the last century."

It's their current specialisation in worldwide Arms, Armour, Militaria, and Books, which really marks them out and creates such a fascinating and fantastic place to visit. From antiquities from all the past ancient empires, including bronze-age swords, axes, helmets and daggers, to Roman Viking and medeavil weaponry, to suits of samurai and European armour, muskets, revolvers, duelling pistols, American civil war swords, right through to medals and World War II militaria, it's all there to be viewed and drooled over. For example they had in stock a signed 1st Edition book that once personally belonged to Winston Churchill detailing a story of combat in the American Revolutionary War. It was presented to him during WW2 and signed by it's author, Robert Graves, one of England's greatest WW1 poets and novelists. It was declared by Churchill, in a personal letter to Robert Graves thanking him for the gift, that it was one of only 6 or 7 novels that he had read during his premiership in the war, and subsequently this very book was used by him to advise the creation and modus operandi of the new British Commandos. Also the last time I visited I was shown their first edition The Great Gatsby, an absolute gem of a rarity, that must be valued at many tens of thousands of pounds. It's not a museum, but when you leave, you've had the same experience! I can honestly say the experience of a visit to the armoury, although not a vast premises by any means, is utterly memorable, and every single person that passed through their doors while I was there was either astonished, amazed, or both!

Francis Taylor

“With the passing of the generations that came before, all that is left, after the memories dim and fade away, is what that is physically left behind. To seek such manifestations of past generations, and preserve them for the future, is vital for all those generations yet to come”

Mark Hawkins  read more

Code: 19615

A Most Attractive 500 Plus Year Old Samurai Battle Katana With All Original Edo Mounts,

Shibui mounted in all its original Edo period mounts and saya. Higo iron fushigashira mounts, decorated with takebori gold aoi leaves. Tetsu round tsuba with pierced kozuka and [gilt copper filled] kogai hitsu-ana. The original Edo saya lacquer is simply beautiful, in two shades of black with an intricate fine rainfall pattern within the design. The menuki under the Edo silk binding, are patinated takebori flowers with pure gold highlights. The blade has a beautiful undulating hamon pattern of considerable depth.
Shibui is a term that effectively translates to ‘quiet’ , it is a reference to a sword that has a relatively subdued look as it concentrates on high quality yet subtle elegance, as it is a sword entirely concentrating on combat and less on flamboyant display. Of course all samurai swords were designed for combat, often despite being mounted as works of art, often with fantastic quality fittings worthy of Italian Renaissance jewels, such as the European equivalent work by the Italian master Cellini, but they would be for samurai eager to display their status in the elite hierarchy of the samurai class, such as daimyo. The swords mounted shibui were for the samurai of far more serious nature, dedicated to their more basic standards of bushido, the art of the ultimate warrior, with little or no interest in displays of rank. A samurai of the highest skill but preferring the anonymity of almost being invisible to unwanted attention.

Samurai endured for almost 700 years, from 1185 to 1867. Samurai families were considered the elite. They made up only about six percent of the population and included daimyo and the loyal soldiers who fought under them. Samurai means one who serves."

Samurai were expected to be both fierce warriors and lovers of art, a dichotomy summed up by the Japanese concepts of bu [to stop the spear] exanding into bushido (the way of life of the warrior) and bun (the artistic, intellectual and spiritual side of the samurai). Originally conceived as away of dignifying raw military power, the two concepts were synthesised in feudal Japan and later became a key feature of Japanese culture and morality. The quintessential samurai was Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary early Edo-period swordsman who reportedly killed 60 men before his 30th birthday and was also a painting master. Members of a hierarchal class or caste, samurai were the sons of samurai and they were taught from an early age to unquestionably obey their mother, father and daimyo. When they grew older they may be trained by Zen Buddhist masters in meditation and the Zen concepts of impermanence and harmony with nature. The were also taught about painting, calligraphy, nature poetry, mythological literature, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony. 40 inches long overall. 28.5 inch long blade, from tsuba to tip., The blade is in super condition for its age, with just a few wear marks, and pit marks on the mune back edge near the boshi. The saya lacquer has some natural age craking at the base  read more

Code: 24217

A Ko Wakizashi, or Long Sunobi Tanto, Signed Blade Shinto Period Circa 1650

All original Edo mounts and a most fine and elegant blade with notare based on suguha hamon, signed, possibly Norishige, but the kanji are somewhat difficult to interpret, 15.5 inch blade measured from tsuba to tip.

Suite of matching koshirae mounts in tetsu with the tsuba gold inlaid with a stylized dragon and clouds, similary in laid in the sayajiri and saya band inlaid, with a black stippled erushi lacquer, and a carved wood tsuka. The kozuka is a takebori dragon on the plain tetsu ground, the blade is carved wood. The blade has a fine silver foiled habaki engraved with oblique raindrop pattern.

Sunobi Tanto
The Tanto that varied from the traditional size were called Sunobi-Tanto or O-Tanto. These were larger versions of the Tanto which featured blades usually measuring between 13 to 14 inches long. It was close to the size of the Ko-Wakizashi, which is a shorter version of the Wakizashi. However as this blade is even longer that the usual 14 inches, that is why it can be considered as a transitional weapon that has a foot in both camps so to speak. Because of its often small size, the Samurai warriors were able to conceal the Tanto in their clothing. It was also the Shoto or small sword in the Daisho and was paired with the Tachi. This was before the Samurai chose to use the Wakizashi over the Tanto as an auxiliary sword.
The Wakizashi was a Samurai warrior’s backup weapon that was used for close-quarter battles. Aside from this, the sword was a Samurai warrior’s tool for beheading a defeated opponent. It was sometimes used for committing Seppuku, a ritualistic suicide.

In addition, the Wakizashi was one of the few short swords available to the Samurai warrior. Another sword they might use was called a Chisa Katana, effectively a short Katana perfect for use within buildings castles etc. and the prerogative of the personal full time bodyguard of a Daimyo lord, who were the usually the only samurai permitted to be armed in his presence day and night.

Because the sword was the main battle weapon of Japan's knightly man-at-arms (although spears and bows were also carried), an entire martial art grew up around learning how to use it. This was kenjutsu, the art of sword fighting, or kendo in its modern, non-warlike incarnation. The importance of studying kenjutsu and the other martial arts such as kyujutsu, the art of the bow, was so critical to the samurai a very real matter of life or death that Miyamoto Musashi, most renowned of all swordsmen, warned in his classic The Book of Five Rings: The science of martial arts for warriors requires construction of various weapons and understanding the properties of the weapons. A member of a warrior family who does not learn to use weapons and understand the specific advantages of each weapon would seem to be somewhat uncultivated. European knights and Japanese samurai have some interesting similarities. Both groups rode horses and wore armour. Both came from a wealthy upper class. And both were trained to follow strict codes of moral behaviour. In Europe, these ideals were called chivalry; the samurai code was called Bushido, "the way of the warrior." The rules of chivalry and Bushido both emphasize honour, self-control, loyalty, bravery, and military training  read more

Code: 24350