A Most Rare Victorian Constabulary Or Beadle's Walking Stave Quarter-Staff.

Bearing the hand painted decoration of a large gilt and coloured crown, and a gilt VR monogram for the monarch, Queen Victoria,above the date 1849. It has a fair amount of surface paint wear caused by service use in its working life. Based on the old English quarterstaff a beadle or policeman's walking stave that was originally used in the days before a regular uniform had been designed for the British police service. It was a means of identifying the bearer as to his rank, status and authority as a police constable, yet still a most effective weapon of defence and restraint when required, but they continued in use after uniforms were fully standard, but only for a brief period. Very few of these most unusual original police service artifacts survive today. Stick fighting was prevalent throughout historical European martial arts and indeed worldwide. The oldest systematic descriptions of stick-fighting methods in Europe date to the 15th century. The oldest surviving English work giving technical information on staff combat dates from the 15th century - it is a brief listing of "strokes of the 2-hand staff", which shares terminology with the preceding "strokes of the 2-hand sword" in the same manuscript. George Silver (1599) explains techniques of short staff combat, and states that the use of other polearms and the two-handed sword are based on the same method. Later authors on the subject included Joseph Swetnam, Zachary Wylde, and Donald McBane. Silver, Swetnam, and Wylde all agreed that the staff was among the best, if not the very best, of all hand weapons.

During the 16th century quarterstaves were favoured as weapons by the London Masters of Defence. Richard Peeke, in 1625, and Zachary Wylde, in 1711, refer to the quarterstaff as a national English weapon. By the 18th century the weapon became popularly associated with gladiatorial prize playing. A modified version of quarterstaff fencing, employing bamboo or ash staves and protective equipment adapted from fencing, boxing and cricket was revived as a sport in some London fencing schools and at the Aldershot Military Training School during the later 19th century. Works on this style were published by Thomas McCarthy and by Allanson-Winn and Phillips-Wolley. A superb photo in the gallery of a Victorian city Beadle with his near identical quarter staff. Around 73 inches long  read more

Code: 21233

A Simply Stunning 19th Century Crimean War British Coldstream Guards, Battle of Alma period, Senior Officer's Regimental Gothic Hilt Sword

A beautiful sword, made by Andrews of Pall Mall London, with traditional WR IVth cypher Gothic hilt, sharkskin bound grip and pipeback combat blade with regimental badge of the Coldstream Guards, plus the cypher of King William IVth. It is set in its senior officer's field rank scabbard, and just as used by a field officer [major and above] in The Crimean War, in the Coldstream Guards, and at the Battle of Alma. This below is taken from a letter sent from the Crimea by a Coldstream officer.

Bivouac, River Alma, 21 September 1854
I hasten to write a few lines to tell you I am safe and sound, knowing how anxious you will be, after hearing that we have had an action with the Russians.At about 12 o'clock on the 20th, on crowning a ridge, we came all at once in sight of the Russian army, in an entrenched camp beyond the Alma, distant about three miles. Immediately we appeared they set fire to a village between us and them so as to mask their force by the smoke.

We continued advancing steadily, halting occasionally to rest the men, till half-past one, when the first shot was fired, and soon after the rattle of musketry told us that our rifle skirmishers were engaged. Our division then deployed into line, and we stood so for about twenty minutes, an occasional round shot rolling up to us, but so spent that one was able to step aside from it. Wounded men from the front soon began to be carried through our lines to the rear, and loose and wounded horses began to gallop about.

At last we were ordered to advance, which we did for about 300 yards nearer the batteries, and halted, and the men lay down. We were now well within range, and the round shot fell tolerably thick, an occasional shell bursting over our heads.

After standing steady for about twenty minutes, the light division (who were in line in front of us) advanced again, and we followed.

The Russians had put posts to mark the ranges, which they had got with great accuracy. We now advanced to within 200 yards of the river and 700 from the batteries, and halted under a low wall for five minutes, till we saw the light division over the river, when we continued our advance in support of them. On crossing the wall we came into vineyards, and here the cannonade was most terrific, the grape and canister falling around us like hail - the flash of each gun being instantly followed by the splash of grape among the tilled ground like a handful of gravel thrown into a pool.

On reaching the river, the fire from a large body of riflemen was added, but the men dashed through, up to their middle in water, and halted on the opposite side to re-form their ranks, under shelter of a high bank. At this moment the light division had gained the intrenchment, and the British colour was planted in the fort; but, ammunition failing them, they were forced back.

The Scots Fusiliers were hurried on to support them before they had time to reform themselves, and the 23rd, retiring in some confusion upon them, threw them for a few minutes into utter disorder. The Russians, perceiving this, dashed out of the fort upon them, and a frightful struggle took place which ended in their total discomfiture.

For a minute or two the Scots Fusilier colours stood alone in the front, while General Bentinck rallied the men to them, their officers leading them on gallantly.

At this moment I rode off to the Coldstream, through whose ranks the light division had retired, leaving them the front line. They advanced up the hill splendidly, with the Highlanders on their left, and not a shot did they fire till within 150 or 200 yards from the intrenchments. A battery of 18 and 24 pounders was in position in our front, and a swarm of riflemen behind them. Fortunately the enemy's fire was much too high, passing close over our heads, the men who were killed being all hit on the crown of the head, and the Coldstream actually lost none. When we got about fifty yards from the intrenchment, the enemy turned tail, leaving us masters of the battery and the day.

As they retired they took all their guns except two, and a great many of their wounded. In spite of this the ground was covered with dead and dying, lying in heaps in every direction on what might be called the glacis, and inside the intrenchments they were so thick that one could hardly avoid riding over them; but the excitement of the victory stifled for the time all feeling of horror for such a scene, and it was not till this morning when I visited the battle-field, that I could at all realise the horrors which must be the price of such a day. Most fervently did I thank God, who had preserved me amidst such dangers. How I escaped seems to me the more marvellous the more I think of it. Though on horseback (on my old charger), my cocked-hat and clothes were sprinkled all over with blood.

The loss of the Brigade of Guards is very severe, but the proportion of deaths to wounded is extraordinarily small. On calling the roll after the action, 312 rank and file and fifteen officers were discovered to be killed and wounded.

Besides there was my poor friend Horace Cust, who was struck by a round shot in crossing the river. He was aide-de-camp to General Bentinck, and we were watering our horses at the time when the shot struck his horse in the shoulder and smashed poor Cust's thigh. He died soon after the leg was amputated. Charles Baring, who has lost his arm (taken out of the socket) is the only other Coldstream officer hit. They only went into action with sixteen officers, less than half their complement.

We have been occupied the whole day in burying the dead. About 1000 were laid in the ditch of the fort, and the earthen parapet was then thrown back upon them. We find that the whole garrison of Sebastopol were before us, under Mentschikoff in person. His carriage has fallen into our hands, and in it a letter stating that Sebastopol could hold out a long time against us, but that there was a position at Alma which could hold out three weeks. We took it in three hours.

So convinced were they of the impossibility of our taking it that ladies were actually there as spectators, little expecting the review they were destined to be spectators of. We expect now to find no resistance whatever at the Katcha river, the whole Russian force having retired into Sebastopol. We always turn out at four o'clock in the morning, an hour before daybreak. This is a superb and historical sword. When originally purchased it would have had a junior officer's leather and brass scabbard, but, its use in a 'field rank pattern' scabbard, of all brass, would have been granted to the officer, upon his promotion from captain to major, in the regiment and thence forward to colonel if greater promotion was achieved. Small combat denting to the scabbard. There are few swords just as this superb example in the museum collection, and they appear in the book of the Artifacts of the Crimean War, "Crimean Memories", by Hutchinson, Vice, & Small  read more

Code: 23428

1st Edition James Bond, Octopussy & The Living Daylights, by Ian Fleming

1st Edition, 1st Impression second issue jacket. Published by Jonathan Cape, 1966. Octopussy and The Living Daylights (sometimes published as Octopussy) is the fourteenth and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 23 June 1966.

The book originally contained just two stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", with subsequent editions also carrying firstly "The Property of a Lady" and then "007 in New York". The stories were first published in different publications, with "Octopussy" first serialised in the Daily Express in October 1965. "The Living Daylights" had first appeared in The Sunday Times on 4 February 1962; "The Property of a Lady" was published in November 1963 in a Sotheby's publication, The Ivory Hammer, whilst "007 in New York" first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune in October 1963.

The two original stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", were both adapted for publication in comic strip format in the Daily Express in 1966–1967. Elements from the stories have also been used in the Eon Productions Bond films. The first, Octopussy, starring Roger Moore as James Bond, was released in 1983 as the thirteenth film in the series and provided the back story for the film Octopussy's family, while "The Property of a Lady" was more closely adapted for an auction sequence in the film. The Living Daylights, released in 1987, was the fifteenth Bond film produced by Eon and starred Timothy Dalton in his first appearance as Bond.On the morning of 12 August 1964, Fleming died of a heart attack; eight months later, The Man with the Golden Gun was published.8 The rights to Fleming's works were held by Glidrose Productions (now Ian Fleming Publications) and it was decided by the company that two short stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", would be published in 1966The story "Octopussy" was written in early 1962 at Fleming's Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. The story is told in the manner of "Quantum of Solace", with Bond as catalyst for story told in flashback, rather than as a main character for action. Fleming originally titled "The Living Daylights" as "Trigger Finger", although when it first appeared, in The Sunday Times colour supplement of 4 February 1962, it was under the title of "Berlin Escape". It was also published in the June 1962 issue of the American magazine Argosy under the same name
As with his previous novels, Fleming used events from his past as elements in his novel. Whilst at Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Fleming's car, a Standard Tourer, had been struck by a train at a level crossing and he had been dragged fifty yards down the track. From that time on he had associated trains with death, which led to their use as a plot device not just in The Man with the Golden Gun, but also in Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia, with Love. To show just how much all things original Bond are appreciated in the world of collectors the Walther pistol used by Connery in the poster of From Russia With Love, in 1963, and also drawn in the man With The Golden Gun poster as shown here an air pistol, .177 (4.5mm) Walther 'LP MOD.53' Air Pistol, Serial No. 054159, was sold by Christies in 2010 with an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000 for an incredible £277,000. We dropped out of the bidding at £22,000 Incredible in that it was never used in any film, was an air pistol not a real automatic, and only used in promotional posters. It was 'said' to have been used by accident in fact as they couldn't find a correct Walther.. A full set of 1st edition Ian Fleming's 14 James Bond novels published by Jonathan Cape between 1953-1966 could now cost in the region of £90,000. Comprising: Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Diamonds are Forever, From Russia with Love, Dr No, Goldfinger, For Your Eyes Only, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice, The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and the Living Daylights.  read more

Code: 25090

A Stupendous, Original Officer's Quality Baker Rifle, of the Napoleonic Wars. Without Doubt The Most Famous Rifle Of The Georgian Period & For The Next 50 Years

Numbered on the butt tang, number 1. Coincidentally, around 25 years ago we had the privilege to own Henry Nock's No. 1 Baker as well. Both of these rifles may have been the gunsmiths examples to gain the contract from the Board of Ordnance, that eventually went to Mr Baker. When both Nock and Studenmayer failed to gain the contract, the rifles were then likely sold to British Rifle regiment officer's. However due to the exurgencies of war, Baker couldn't hope to fulfill the contract, neither could the Tower armoury, so the contracts were put out to such approved makers as Nock, Wallis and Studenmayer anyway.

It has a fine 30 inch Damascus barrel, .650, with Tower proofs, regulation seven groove rifling, and with an underside bayonet lug to affix its sword, maker inscribed name and address, of one of England's finest gunmaker's, who was gunmaker to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, Samuel Studenmayer of London {former apprentice to the great Manton} and he made this rifle at 35 Jermyn Street, some short while just after 1799. It is three-quarter stocked, with original steel ram/cleaning rod held within brass ramrod pipes, the tapered stepped steel lock with rain proof pan and roller frizzen. This gun appears in Howard Blackmore's British Military Firearms 1650 to 1850. It takes a very rare straight bladed socket sword {bayonet} with a 1796 pattern Light Cavalry P Hilt. {See a copy of the picture of the rifle and its sword, in a photo from Howard’s book copy that he gave us, in the gallery} It has the traditional but optional military inset patchbox in the fine walnut stock, with typical Baker cheekpiece on the opposing side, and the barrel is affixed with key slides as opposed to musket pins.

This rifle is in pretty much in the same order of condition that of all the racked Baker's showed to us by Howard Blackmore during our tour of the Tower in the 1970's, with our late gunsmith Dennis Ottrey.

Howard also showed us the original Studenmeyer Baker combat service rifle sword {bayonet} with its 1796 cavalry variant hilt with socket ring, that would have been used with our Baker rifle. We do believe that may have been the last time we saw one of these incredibly rare and collectable swords, so rare in fact, we know of no known example being available on the open market for sale these past 40 years. If one did appear, it could likely be more highly priced than the rifle itself.

The Baker rifle (officially known as the Pattern 1800 Infantry Rifle) was a flintlock rifle used by the rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces.

The Baker rifle was first produced in 1800 by Ezekiel Baker, a master gunsmith from Whitechapel. The British Army was still issuing the infantry rifle in the 1830s.

The British Army had learnt the value of rifles from their experience in the American Revolutionary War. However, existing rifle designs were considered too cumbersome, slow-firing, fragile or expensive to be put to use on any scale beyond irregular companies. Rifles had been issued on a limited basis and consisted of parts made to no precise pattern, often brought in from Prussia. The war against Revolutionary France resulted in the employment of new tactics, and the British Army responded, albeit with some delay. Prior to the formation of an Experimental Rifle Corps in 1800, a trial was held at Woolwich by the British Board of Ordnance on 22 February 1800 in order to select a standard rifle pattern; the rifle designed by Ezekiel Baker was chosen. During the trial, of the twelve shots fired, eleven were placed in a 6-foot (1.8 m) circular target at a distance of 300 yards (270 m).

Colonel Coote Manningham, responsible for establishing the Rifle Corps, influenced the initial designs of the Baker. The first model resembled the British infantry musket ("Brown Bess"), but was rejected as too heavy. Baker was provided with a German Jäger rifle as an example of what was needed. The second model he made had a .75 caliber bore, the same caliber as the infantry musket. It had a 32-inch barrel, with eight rectangular rifling grooves; this model was accepted as the Infantry Rifle, but more changes were made until it was finally placed into production. The third and final model had the barrel shortened from 32 to 30 inches, and the caliber reduced to .653, which allowed the rifle to fire a .625 calibre carbine bullet, with a greased patch to grip the now-seven rectangular grooves in the barrel.

The rifle is referred to almost exclusively as the "Baker Rifle", but it was produced by a variety of manufacturers and sub-contractors from 1800 to 1837. Most of the rifles produced between 1800 and 1815 were not made by Ezekiel Baker, but under the Tower of London system, and he sub-contracted the manufacture of parts of the rifle to over 20 British gunsmiths.

The rifle as originally manufactured was expected to be capable of firing at a range of up to 200 yards (183 meters) with a high hit rate. The Baker rifle was used by skirmishers facing their opponents in pairs, sniping at the enemy either from positions in front of the main lines or from hidden positions in heights overlooking battlefields.

The accuracy of the rifle in capable hands is most famously demonstrated at the Battle of Cacabelos (during Moore's retreat to Corunna in 1809) by the action of Rifleman Thomas Plunkett (or Plunket) of the 1st Battalion, 95th Rifles, who shot French General Colbert at an unknown but long range (as much as 600 yards (550 m) according to some sources). He then shot Colbert's aide-de-camp, Latour-Maubourg, who went to the aid of his general, suggesting that the success of the first shot was not due to luck.

That rifleman Plunkett and others were able to regularly hit targets at ranges considered to be beyond the rifle's effective range speaks for both their marksmanship and the capabilities of the rifle.

Overall in excellent original condition for age, with good stock patina, reverse side age stock split and just commensurate surface bruising as to be expected for its age and use. A Napoleonic Wars combat service use Stedenmayer officer’s Baker is a very highly prized rifle indeed, and this is an exceptional example as well. It’s patch box contains small useful accessories, including spare flints and cleaning rod attachments.  read more

Code: 24800

A Captivating Shinto Era Wakizashi, Circa 1650, Signed Fuyuhiro. A Wonderful and Elegant Edo Period Sword of Exceptional Sophistication.

A stunning antique shinto wakazashi samurai sword, its blade, fittings and saya have been completely untouched since its arrival in England around 150 years ago. The blade has just been cleaned and conserved and looks fabulous

All original Edo period signed fittings in patinated copper of of superb quality, with a fabulously crafted takebori flying fish on the kashira and an exceptional complimentary fuchi that is signed, and the black tsukaito is wrapped over stunning shakudo and gold menuki, one being a samurai in armour, beneath that is samegawa of extremely rare large inlaid nodules of giant ray skin some over a third of an inch across.
The tsuba is most elegant and understated with intermediate four-line delicate Amidayasuri filemarks or carving representing the halo emanating from Amida Buddha. The blade is bright with a superb midare hamon but best seen in a correct light, in its beautiful black stippled urushi lacquer saya, with a gold sayajiri end cap, and a small, applied, takebori bean form sinchu lower section mount, the saya is complete with a super, signed blade kozuka utility knife, in matching copper, decorated with a takebori figure of Fukurokuju.
In Japan, Fukurokuju is one of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japanese mythology. It has been theorized that he is a Japanese assimilation of the Chinese Three Star Gods (Fu Lu Shou) embodied in one deity. Most related in appearance to the Chinese star god Shou, he is the God of wisdom and longevity. According to some, before attaining divinity, he was a Chinese hermit of the Song Dynasty and a reincarnation of the Taoist Deity, Xuantian Shangdi. It is said that during his human incarnation, he was a sennin; a immortal who could exist without eating food.

Fukurokuju probably originated from an old Chinese tale about a mythical Chinese Taoist hermit sage renowned for performing miracles in the Northern Song period (960–1127). In China, this hermit (also known as Jurōjin) was thought to embody the celestial powers of the south polar star. Fukurokuju was not always included in the earliest representations of the Seven in Japan. He was instead replaced by Kichijōten (goddess of fortune, beauty, and merit). He is now, however, an established member of the Seven Lucky Gods,

The original Edo period urushi lacquer on the saya is in simply excellent condition and shows most elegant simplicity, it reveals within that simplicity the finest craftsmanship and beauty worthy of a master of the art of urushi decor. Japanese lacquer, or urushi, is a transformative and highly prized material that has been refined for over 7000 years.

Cherished for its infinite versatility, urushi is a distinctive art form that has spread across all facets of Japanese culture from the tea ceremony to the saya scabbards of samurai swords

Japanese artists created their own style and perfected the art of decorated lacquerware during the 8th century. Japanese lacquer skills reached its peak as early as the twelfth century, at the end of the Heian period (794-1185). This skill was passed on from father to son and from master to apprentice.

Some provinces of Japan were famous for their contribution to this art: the province of Edo (later Tokyo), for example, produced the most beautiful lacquered pieces from the 17th to the 18th centuries. Lords and shoguns privately employed lacquerers to produce decorated samurai sword saya and also ceremonial and decorative objects for their homes and palaces.


Wakizashi have been in use as far back as the 15th or 16th century. The wakizashi was used as a backup or auxiliary sword; it was also used for close quarters fighting, and also to behead a defeated opponent and sometimes to commit ritual suicide. The wakizashi was one of several short swords available for use by samurai including the yoroi toshi, the chisa-katana and the tanto. The term wakizashi did not originally specify swords of any official blade length and was an abbreviation of "wakizashi no katana" ("sword thrust at one's side"); the term was applied to companion swords of all sizes. It was not until the Edo period in 1638 when the rulers of Japan tried to regulate the types of swords and the social groups which were allowed to wear them that the lengths of katana and wakizashi were officially set.  read more

Code: 24338

A Most Beautiful Signed Koto Period Pre Edo Katana , 1500's, With All Original Edo Period Mounts

Koto period blade, with a single mekugi-ana, signed Bitchu ju Kuni... the last part of the name can't be clearly read. It has a very good suguha hamon, tsuka with shakudo fuchi-kashira with gold and silver decoration of a takebori samurai on horseback on the fuchi and a samurai by a shoreline with overhanging trees and waves on the fuchi, gold bamboo leaves menuki, circular iron tsuba chiselled with leaves, in its black urushi lacquered saya. Black tsuka-ito over gold bamboo leaves, on samegawa giant rayskin.

The samurai were roughly the equivalent of feudal knights. Employed by the shogun or daimyo, they were members of hereditary warrior class that followed a strict "code" that defined their clothes, armour and behaviour on the battlefield. But unlike most medieval knights, samurai warriors could read and they were well versed in Japanese art, literature and poetry.
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 to stop the spear expanding 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 were 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.

As part of their military training, samurai were taught to sleep with their right arm underneath them so if they were attacked in the middle of the night and their the left arm was cut off the could still fight with their right arm. Samurai that tossed and turned at night were cured of the habit by having two knives placed on either side of their pillow.

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.
An individual 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. Swords in Japan have long been symbols of power and honour and seen as works of art. Blade surface has areas of the usual age surface micro thinning seen in Koto blades

Blade 27.25 inches long tsuba to tip, overall sword length in saya 38 inches long  read more

Code: 24182

The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming First Edition Jonathan Cape 1962. The Vivienne Michel Novel.

Double-page illustration at pp. 6-7. First edition, first impression. This is the only Bond book to be written in the first person, presented as the testimony of a 23-year-old Canadian woman with whom Bond has an ill-fated affair. To further this pretence, Vivienne Michel gets a spurious credit on the title page as co-author. A Central character and narrator is "Vivienne Michel, " a young Canadian woman who ends up running a cheap motel in the Adirondack Mountains to pay for a trip through America. When issued, it was banned in some countries as the most sexually explicit of Fleming's novels. Basis for the movie with Roger Moore in his third James Bond role, Barbara Bach as Major Anya Amasova (Agent Triple X) and Curd Jürgens as Karl Stromberg; film adaptation was produced in 1977 .

About; The Spy Who Loved Me

‘He was about six feet tall, slim and fit. The eyes in the lean, slightly tanned face were a very clear grey-blue and as they observed the men they were cold and watchful. His good looks had a dangerous, almost cruel quality that had frightened me. But now I knew he could smile, I thought his face exciting, in a way no face had ever excited me before …’ Vivienne Michel is in trouble. Trying to escape her tangled past, she has run away to the American backwoods, winding up at the Dreamy Pines Motor Court. A far cry from the privileged world she was born to, the motel is also the destination of two hardened killers—the perverse Sol Horror and the deadly Sluggsy Morant. When a coolly charismatic Englishman turns up, Viv, in terrible danger, is not just hopeful, but fascinated. Because he is James Bond, 007; the man she hopes will save her, the spy she hopes will love her

Octavo. Original dark grey boards, spine lettered in silver, dagger design stamped on front cover in silver and blind, red endpapers. With dust jacket, small tears on the jacket with light staining.  read more

Code: 25093

A Very Good, Original, 1640’s English Civil War Officer's Mortuary Hilted Back Sword

The traditional sword’s basket hilt bears, within oval panels, the engraved facial portraits, it is said, of King Charles Ist and Queen Henrietta, and several of the Green Man. In the Victorian period these swords thus became known as Mortuary hilted swords, due to the executed king's visage being designed within the hilt pattern. It is not known exactly how this came to be, but there is no known use of the term Mortuary hilted before this time. In the Civil War, the opening of the battle usually involved groups of cavalry, with the officers carrying these very form of swords. The main objective was to make the opposing cavalry run away. When that happened, the victorious cavalry turned on the enemy infantry. Well-disciplined pike men, brave enough to hold their ground, could do tremendous damage to a cavalry charging straight at them. There are several examples of cavalry men having three or four horses killed under them in one battle. At the start of the war the king's nephew, Prince Rupert, was put in charge of the cavalry. Although Rupert was only twenty-three he already had a lot of experience fighting in the Dutch army. Prince Rupert introduced a new cavalry tactic that he had learnt fighting in Sweden. This involved charging full speed at the enemy. The horses were kept close together and just before impact the men fired their pistols, then arming themselves with their swords for the all too fearsome hand to hand combat

During the early stages of the Civil War the parliamentary army was at a great disadvantage. Most of the soldiers had never used a sword or musket before. When faced with Prince Rupert's cavalry charging at full speed, they often turned and ran.

One of the Roundhead officers who saw Prince Rupert's cavalry in action was a man called Oliver Cromwell. Although Cromwell had no military training, his experience as a large landowner gave him a good knowledge of horses. Cromwell became convinced that if he could produce a well-disciplined army he could defeat Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers. He knew that pike men, armed with sixteen-foot-long pikes, who stood their ground during a cavalry attack, could do a tremendous amount of damage.

Oliver Cromwell also noticed that Prince Rupert's cavalry were not very well disciplined. After they charged the enemy they went in pursuit of individual targets. At the first major battle of the civil war at Edge hill, most of Prince Rupert's cavalrymen did not return to the battlefield until over an hour after the initial charge. By this time the horses were so tired they were unable to mount another attack against the Roundheads.

Cromwell trained his cavalry to keep together after a charge. In this way his men could repeatedly charge the Cavaliers. Cromwell's new cavalry took part in its first major battle at Marston Moor in Yorkshire in July 1644. The king's soldiers were heavily defeated in the battle. Cromwell's soldiers became known as the Ironsides' because of the way they cut through the Cavaliers on the battlefield. The Mortuary hilted swords actually gained their unusual name some considerable time after the Civil War. For, as they bore representational portraits of King Charles Ist, it was believed in Victorian times that they were to symbolize the death of the King, however, as these swords were actually made from 1640, long before he was executed, it was an obviously erroneous naming, that curiously remains to this day. This example is a beautiful, fine and singularly handsome piece and would certainly be a fine addition to any collection of rare English swords. There are a few examples near identical to this sword in the Royal Collection and the Tower of London Collection.

Every single item from The Lanes Armoury is accompanied by our unique Certificate of Authenticity. Part of our continued dedication to maintain the standards forged by us over the past 100 years of our family’s trading

In good condition for age with natural age wear and tear, single side bars. 35.25 inch long blade, overall 41 inches overall  read more

Code: 23161

Victorian Police 'Jack the Ripper' Era Type Handcuffs or 'Derby's' & Original Oval Flat Key

Good flattened head key type, with board of ordnance broad arrow stamp and serial number.

The type as was made and first used in the early Victorian era from the very beginnings of the British Police service, and on well into the next century. Excellent working order early flat key type. A good and fine condition pair of original 'Derby' cuffs used by the 'Bobbies' or 'Peelers', with the traditional rotating spiral key action.
They are also the very type that were used, and as can be seen, in all the old films of the Whitechapel Murders, and Sherlock Holmes' adventures in the gloomy London Fog.

Originally handcuffs were made of a large wooden toggle with a loop of cord, which was slipped over a prisoner’s wrists and twisted. Manufacturers Hiatt and Company, founded in Birmingham in 1780, developed a new patent for restraints, which became standard issue when the Metropolitan Police was created in 1829.

In 1818 Thomas Griffin Hiatt appears in the Wrightson Directory for the first time as a manufacturer of felon's irons and gate locks, located on Moor St. in Birmingham. Some time in the next few years Hiatt moved around the corner to 26 Masshouse Lane, where he is located in the next edition of the Wrightson's Birmingham directory as a manufacturer of felon's irons, gate lock, handcuffs, horse and dog collars. The Hiatt Company remained at the 26 Masshouse Lane address until the premises were destroyed by the World War II German bombing in 1941.

The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the largely impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have been ascribed to the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.

The murderer or murderers were never identified and the cases remain unsolved. Sensational reportage and the mystery surrounding the identity of the killer or killers fed the development of the character "Jack the Ripper", who was blamed for all or most of the murders. Hundreds of books and articles discuss the Whitechapel murders, and they feature in novels, short stories, comic books, television shows, and films of multiple genres.

The poor of the East End had long been ignored by affluent society, but the nature of the Whitechapel murders and of the victims' impoverished lifestyles drew national attention to their living conditions. The murders galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, unsanitary slums of the East End, and led to demands for reform. On 24 September 1888, George Bernard Shaw commented sarcastically on the media's sudden concern with social justice in a letter to The Star newspaper:  read more

Code: 25079

A Superb Roman 1900 Year Old 'Status' Seal Ring, Intaglio, Stylized Engraved, with a Mythological Scene of The Pheonix In Flight

A superb Henig type Xb ring. Wide oval bezel affixed to flattened shoulders engraved copper bronze alloy with gilt highlights. Almost identical shape and form to one found in the UK near Hadrian's Wall. and another similar ring, with the very same style of workmanship and engraving from the era, was discovered 50 years ago, and believed to be once the ring of the infamous Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea for Rome

The Greek myth of the Pheonix in a nest of flames was set down in Ancient Rome by the great poet Ovid,

In Ovid's, Metamorphoses 15. 385 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"These creatures other races of birds all derive their first beginnings from others of their kind. But one alone, a bird, renews and re-begets itself--the Phoenix of Assyria, which feeds not upon seeds or verdure but the oils of balsam and the tears of frankincense. This bird, when five long centuries of life have passed, with claws and beak unsullied, builds a nest high on a lofty swaying palm; and lines the nest with cassia and spikenard and golden myrrh and shreds of cinnamon, and settled there at ease and, so embowered in spicy perfumes, ends his life's long span. Then from his father's body is reborn a little Phoenix, so they say, to live the same long years. When time has built his strength with power to raise the weight, he lifts the nest--the nest his cradle and his father's tomb--as love and duty prompt, from that tall palm and carries it across the sky to reach the Sun's great city i.e. Heliopolis in Egypt, and before the doors of the Sun's holy temple lays it down."

Publius Ovidius Naso, 21 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.

Today, Ovid is most famous for the Metamorphoses, a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in dactylic hexameters.

A ring discovered 50 years ago is now believed to possibly be the ring of Pontius Pilate himself, and it was the same copper-bronze form ring as is this one. See its image in the gallery, with a detailed drawing of the traditional stylized engraving, in order to show the intaglio more clearly.

Being around 2000 years old, it has a heavily encrusted, natural, well aged patina

Every single item from The Lanes Armoury is accompanied by our unique Certificate of Authenticity. Part of our continued dedication to maintain the standards forged by us over the past 100 years of our family’s trading  read more

Code: 25077