Great, Antique, Militaria Collector’s Items Arriving Daily At The Lanes Armoury Britain’s Favourite Armoury Shop, Established Through Four Generations of Brighton Based Antique & Collectors Merchants Over The Past Century.

As usual we have showing another superb, intriguing and amazing selection of another collection of rare and fascinating pieces. Hand chosen by our select team of the most experienced specialists in Europe. The partners, Mark and David, have over 100 years of professional experience between them, purchasing hundreds of private collections, large and small, that some families have accumulated since the 19th century, and supplying tens of thousands of the worlds militaria collectors, specialist bibliophiles, and dozens of worldwide museums.

A selection of stunning British Antique Dragoon helmets arrived this week, Including some fabulous and most beautiful historical collectables from The Royal Navy from the time of Nelson, and British militaria from the past 600 years or more, Artefacts from the Samurai era of Japan and Napoleonic France, The Roman Empire, The Viking Age and Ancient China. Also Roman antiquities and rings from an 1820 Grand Tour Collection. We have also just displayed another original Edo period Samurai Armour, that has lain untouched for likely over 100 years, that arrived last weekend.

We also try our best to offer a large selection of original, small, historic and ancient collectables that are easily affordable.

Naturally every single purchase is accompanied with our unique Certificate of Authenticity. The certificate will include not just the basic description, but any specific provenance, if known, plus, generic provenance detailing its era and the historical context of when and where the item was, or may have been used, and also any past history of the piece, if known. Our certificates are unique in that we take considerable time and effort in order to detail as much history of each collectible, the era of its use, and how such a piece or similar example may have been used, how, where, and potentially, by whom. Some certificates have been known to be as much as two or even three pages in length. If any future collector wishes for just a basic, brief and informative certificate please let us know.

We Are Also Europe's Leading Original Samurai Sword Specialists, almost every day another stunning example of early samurai weaponry arrives, with over 20 historical swords { some over 500 years old} are still yet to be added to our web gallery during the next week or so. So sorry for the delay, as they arrived earlier, but we have been too busy to be able to list, photograph and detail them sooner.

We were listed a few years ago by the world famous New York Times as one of the ‘must see’ places for Americans to visit when in Europe!! and regularly, we are declared and informed by our legions of visitors, every day, that to them we are one of the very best and fascinating shops in the whole of Great Britain. And bearing in mind, in the UK, recorded in 2019, there were 306,655 retail outlets, apparently, so as you can imagine, the competition was pretty stiff. We are certainly not one of the largest attractions in the UK, far from it, but many tell us every single day they consider us to be the best they have ever seen. For us it is vitally important that every customer, old and new, has confidence to deal with an old, well established company that believes every customer must have an enjoyable, successful and satisfactory experience, and you can know that you can enjoy personal one to one contact with our partners, which for us is a priority.

Ancient pieces and antiquities from the 18th and 19th century ‘Grand Tour’ acquisitions are one of our specialities too, and such artefacts from all the ancient civilisations over the past three and a half thousand years or more arrive every week.


Richard Lassels, an expatriate Roman Catholic priest, first used the phrase “Grand Tour” in his 1670 book Voyage to Italy, published posthumously in Paris in 1670. In its introduction, Lassels listed four areas in which travel furnished "an accomplished, consummate traveler" with opportunities to experience first hand the intellectual, the social, the ethical, and the political life of the Continent.

The English gentry of the 17th century believed that what a person knew came from the physical stimuli to which he or she has been exposed. Thus, being on-site and seeing famous works of art and history was an all important part of the Grand Tour. So most Grand Tourists spent the majority of their time visiting museums and historic sites.

Once young men began embarking on these journeys, additional guidebooks and tour guides began to appear to meet the needs of the 20-something male and female travelers and their tutors traveling a standard European itinerary. They carried letters of reference and introduction with them as they departed from southern England, enabling them to access money and invitations along the way.

With nearly unlimited funds, aristocratic connections and months or years to roam, these wealthy young tourists commissioned paintings, perfected their language skills and mingled with the upper crust of the Continent.

The wealthy believed the primary value of the Grand Tour lay in the exposure both to classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. In addition, it provided the only opportunity to view specific works of art, and possibly the only chance to hear certain music. A Grand Tour could last from several months to several years. The youthful Grand Tourists usually traveled in the company of a Cicerone, a knowledgeable guide or tutor.

The ‘Grand Tour’ era of classical acquisitions from history existed up to around the 1850’s, and extended around the whole of Europe, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Land.

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