Antique Arms & Militaria

A Fine & Beautiful Museum Piece. An Original Antique Fijian Ula, A Throwing War Club. A Singularly Beautiful Example & of Exceptional Rarity, From A Fijian Warring Cannibal Tribe Circa 18th Century Lt. Bligh RN of the Mutiny On The Bounty Period

A handsomely hand carved hardwood throwing club "ula" showing a stunning natural, age patina. With fine globed assymetrical head with top knob, and geometric carved patterning on the haft. It is perhaps the most famous and recognizable of all oceanic weapons.

The ula was the most personal fighting war weapon of the Fijian warrior and was carried, inserted into a warrior’s fibre girdle sometimes in pairs like pistols.

The throwing of the ula was achieved with great skill, precision and speed. It was often carried in conjunction with a heavier full length club or spear which served to finish an opponent after initially being disabled by a blow from the ula. It was made by a tribal weapon specialist from a variety of uprooted bushes or shrubs.

Across 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from east to west, Fiji has been a nation of many languages. Fiji's history was one of settlement but also of mobility. Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed. Constant warfare and cannibalism between warring tribes were quite rampant and very much part of everyday life. During the 19th century, Ratu Udre Udre is said to have consumed 872 people and to have made a pile of stones to record his achievement."Ceremonial occasions saw freshly killed corpses piled up for eating. 'Eat me!' was a proper ritual greeting from a commoner to a chief.

The posts that supported the chief's house or the priest's temple would have sacrificed bodies buried underneath them, with the rationale that the spirit of the ritually sacrificed person would invoke the gods to help support the structure, and "men were sacrificed whenever posts had to be renewed" . Also, when a new boat, or drua, was launched, if it was not hauled over men as rollers, crushing them to death, "it would not be expected to float long" . Fijians today regard those times as "na gauna ni tevoro" (time of the devil). The ferocity of the cannibal lifestyle deterred European sailors from going near Fijian waters, giving Fiji the name Cannibal Isles; as a result, Fiji remained unknown to the rest of the world.

According to Fijian legend, the great chief Lutunasobasoba led his people across the seas to the new land of Fiji. Most authorities agree that people came into the Pacific from Southeast Asia via the Malay Peninsula. Here the Melanesians and the Polynesians mixed to create a highly developed society long before the arrival of the Europeans.

The European discoveries of the Fiji group were accidental. The first of these discoveries was made in 1643 by the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman and English navigators, including Captain James Cook who sailed through in 1774, and made further explorations in the 18th century.

Major credit for the discovery and recording of the islands went to Captain William Bligh who sailed through Fiji after the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.

The first Europeans to land and live among the Fijians were shipwrecked sailors and runaway convicts from the Australian penal settlements. Sandalwood traders and missionaries came by the mid 19th century.

Cannibalism practiced in Fiji at that time quickly disappeared as missionaries gained influence. When Ratu Seru Cakobau accepted Christianity in 1854, the rest of the country soon followed and tribal warfare came to an end.

Trade of sandalwood was the dominant feature of the opening of markets between Europeans and the islands, and the finest early Fijian weaponry likely came to Europe from the earliest maritime visitors in the 18th century to early 19th century.

This Ula would likely have been made and used at the time of Lt Bligh and his journey upon HMS Bounty.
'A Chart of Bligh's Islands Fiji by William Bligh. The Broken Line shows my Track in the Bounty's Launch when I discovered the Islands in 1789. The Plain Line my Track in the Providence and Assistant in 1792. The parts tinged Green were seen in the Bounty's Launch.' Added and inscribed in pencil on the left is 'Land seen by the ships Hope and Ann -Captain Maitland, 1799'. Made in ink and pencil on tracing paper, dated 14 April 1801. See Bligh's chart in the gallery

The Ula is approx 13 inches long  read more

Code: 22806

Incredibly Rare British Celtic Iron Age Sword Circa Ist Cent. BC. Made Around a Century Before the Roman Conquest, by Claudius. Amazingly Its Very Type Was Noted in Caeser's Writings During His Time In Britannia. A Durotriges Celts Sword. Discovered 1857

According to the British Museum, who have an extremely similar example, there are only a few hundred remaining in existence today in the world. All of those that have been discovered, have been uncovered from famous hordes or individual finds, usually in South Central England within the past 200 years or so. This sword would have been used around what is being referred to as 'Duropolis', after the Ancient Briton, Celt, Durotriges tribe, which existed in the Wessex region. In its prime, it is thought to have contained 'hundreds' of inhabitants and would have been a major trading centre for southern Britain. The previously unknown habitation in Winterborne Kingston, near Blandford, dates from around 100BC, which makes it 80 years earlier than Colchester in Essex. Colchester was previously widely regarded as Britain's oldest recorded town.

Another fabulous hoard of around 800 Celtic iron age artefacts were announced just a few days ago in March 2025, from the Brigantes Celts of the 1st century B.C.

The most famous of the Ancient Briton Celtic tribes were the Iceni {whose name might have come from Iken, the original name of the River Ouse, where the tribe are said to have come from} who had settlements across Norfolk, in North Suffolk and East Cambridgeshire. One of them was at Brettenham on the Peddars Way, east of Thetford, which was built by Romans to quickly transport troops up to The Wash and Brancaster, where they had a fort protecting North Norfolk.

Queen Boudicca of the Iceni, probably the most famous of all the ancient Celts waged war against the Romans in Britain from 60 AD after the Romans decided to rule the Iceni directly and confiscated the Norfolk property of the leading tribesmen. The uprising was motivated by the Romans' failure to honour an agreement they had made with Boudica's husband, Prasutagus, regarding the succession of his kingdom upon his death, and by the brutal mistreatment of Boudica and her daughters by the occupying Romans.

this amazing sword is formerly from the ex-museum collection with their labelling on its display mounting board, this Ancient Briton sword was also used as a currency bar and is from the Dorset Hoard, an Iron Age hill Fort, in Dorset, excavated in 1857. It is acknowledged that this incredible and significant piece is one of the earliest examples of ancient British currency, utilizing sword blades, it is thought currency bars in the form of swords are actually the very first form of currency used in the British Isles around 2000 to 2,100 years ago, and used to barter and trade all manner of goods, and highly prized as of exceptional value at the time. It is a form of currency that is actually mentioned in Julius Caeser's writings, following Julius Caesar's expeditions to the island of Britannia in 55 and 54 BC. An Iron Age Celtic Dorset Hoard Sword, 2nd-1st century BC. It is further believed by some that they were money in the form of a sword as they were indeed once a functional sword, that was retired from combat.

A substantial long blade with the original short folded-over handle to one end; displayed in an old custom-made box housing with a recently added base and bearing old typescript 'CELTIC IRON 2nd-1st Cent B C / See Caesar's 'De Bello Gallico' V, 12 / Circulated s. and w. Britain / Dorset Hoard' label in four lines with inked correction to Spetisbury. including case (30 inches). Fair condition, held in an old museum display case with identification label.
Provenance
Ex Dorset, UK, hoard, found 1857; accompanied by a copy of the Archaeological Journal 96, pp.114-131, which includes details for the find.
Literature for reference.
See Gresham, Colin A., Archaeological Journal 96, pp.114-131, which includes details for this and other finds from the site; see also Smith, Reginald, Currency Bars, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 2nd Series, XX, p.182 for comparison between the examples; cf. British Museum, accession no.1862,0627.18 for an example from the site (acquired from J. Y. Akerman in 1862; other items were acquired in 1892 from the Durdan, Blandford collection). The name Brittannia was predominantly used to refer simply to the island of Great Britain. After the Roman conquest under the Emperor Claudius in AD 43, it came to be used to refer to the Roman province of Britain (later two provinces), which at one stage consist of part of the island of Great Britain south of Hadrian's wall. Almost every weapon that has survived today from this era is now in a fully russetted condition, as is this one, even the very few swords of kings, that have been preserved in national or Royal collections are today still in a relatively fair condition, but they are from a much later period.

As with all our items it comes complete with our certificate of authenticity  read more

Code: 23228

Possibly The Finest 17th Cent. French Royal Silver Hunting Short Sword, With Original, Incredibly Rare Scabbard & Belt Mount, From a Royal Collection. With The Rarest Bayonne Form Hilt. Likely Used By The King & His Court For the King’s Boar or Stag Hunt

This is a superb French King Louis XIVth royal hunting all silver mounted short sword, and all silver mounted scabbard, and the sword hilt has a hunting carbine muzzle form bayonne hilt, that can, once fitted into the guns barrel, enable the sword to be used as the very first form of bayonet, that converts a carbine into a long pike or spear. In fact the hilt form was named after the French town of Bayonne, where it was said to have been first used, and thus technically invented, and it is the very first form of bayonet ever made, and whence every future bayonet therefore gets its name. It is fitted within its incredibly rare original silk and silver bullion baldric, and we have never seen another surviving original example of such a fabulous royal baldric outside of Les Invalides Museum in Paris. There may possibly be another in the British {H.M. King Charles IIIrd’s } Royal Collection, as it is likely the largest in the world, but we have never seen it. Silk is one of the worlds strongest natural materials, stronger than steel pound for pound, in fact bullet proof vests were originally made from densely woven silk, but once very old, it becomes fragile and therefore antique silk rarely survives intact, especially such a piece as this.

It further bears in silver bullion decor, stitched into the baldric silk belt ‘frog’ mount, behind the two retaining cross straps, twin, inverted and elongated capital letter ‘L’s’, the personal cypher mark and symbol of King Louis XIVth of France.

The highly distinctive cypher mark of all the King’s of France bearing the name Louis. This may very likely indicate that this sword-bayonet was actually owned and used by the King or within the service of the King of France, by one of his highest ranking officers, or indeed an officer of his personal guard, while in use at the French royal hunting lodge by the king, or his entourage of the Royal Court, for hunting boar or stag.

The hunting sword is only usually used as the ‘coup de grace’ to finish off the beast at the hunts conclusion. However it is also an essential defensive arm to protect the king or a noble if the beast turns upon its hunter, which can be most perilous, and indeed, it is well known to be a most frequent fate of many unfortunate huntsman. The royal hunt since medieval days has been a very dangerous royal sport, with many nobles, princes or even kings meeting their grisly end.

King William II (William Rufus), who reigned in England from 1087 to 1100, was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest on August 2nd, 1100, a death widely suspected to be an assassination rather than a hunting accident

King Christian V died from the after-effects of a hunting accident that occurred on October 19, 1698. Christian was hunting with his two sons and his half-brother.

One of finest quality pieces of its type we have ever had the privilege to own, and incredibly still in its original silver mounted scabbard and silk and silver bullion baldric. Probably this can be seen as the best available within the worldwide collecting market today.
It is also probably the most complete example, from the mid to late 1600's, we have ever seen, certainly in over 40 years, including those we have handled within the Royal Collections. This magnificent hunting short sword with bayonne {bayonet} hilt would be the prize of any of the finest worldwide collections of the rarest short swords that can double as the very rare, so called ‘plug’ bayonet, as they are ‘plugged’ into the muzzle of a musket, to convert it to a pike or spear. It is remarkably complete with its silver bullion and silk baldrick frog belt mount with three tongues. It has finest quality solid silver mounts, with decorated quillons bearing profile heads of possibly the king’s huntsman adorned with hunting caps, very similar to the armourer's marks on the blade. And the silver scabbard mounts and fittings also beautifully match, with an acorn frog mount. The original scabbard leather is superb condition, crosshatch patterned, with the so called ‘bullets and lines’ stamped decor. It has a wonderful blade, in stunning order, with two large matching armourer's marks of a profile head on both blade sides. The grip handle is birds-eye maplewood with a silver pommel.

While en residence at Versailles, at 2 pm: the king, Louis XIVth, gave his orders and announced his plans in the morning. If he went on a walk, it would be in the gardens on foot or in a Barouche with the ladies. If he decided to go hunting, the favourite sport of the Bourbons, the monarch would go to the park if he chose to hunt with weapons, and to the surrounding forest when hunting on horseback.

Since the days of the Pharoahs, hunting has been an essential activity of courts. Hunting was both a pleasure, and a way of gathering game for the royal table. Once one area was hunted out, the court moved on to the next. In many different monarchies hunting became an obsession, with its own music, dress and flamboyant rituals. One Chinese prince said: ‘I would rather not eat for three days than not hunt for one’
Hunting was so important that it could decide where the court resided. The proximity of hunting forests was one reason for the choice, as a royal residence, of Windsor, Versailles, Stupinigi, Hubertusberg, and many other sites. Conversely, the choice of these sites as royal residences ensured that the surrounding forests were well maintained. The landscape of the Ile de France is still dominated by the royal hunting forests of Versailles, Marly, Saint-Germain, Compiegne, Vincennes, Fontainebleau, and Rambouillet.
In addition to the pleasure and food it provided, hunting could also acquire a political and hierarchical function. Hunting was a visible assertion of domination over the land and the animal kingdom. It also protected the ruler’s subjects and their herds from boar, wolves and other vermin. The stag was the noblest beast, hunting it the noblest sport. Furthermore hunting was believed to be a school of war, masculinity and horsmanship. It taught courage, comprehension of landscape, and the art of the cavalry charge. In l’Ecole de Cavalerie of 1751, Robichon de La Guerroniere described hunting:
‘it is the pastime which Kings and Princes prefer to all others. This inclination is no doubt based on the conformity existing between hunting and war. In both, in effect, there is an object to tame’,

The story of the evolution of the bayonne, plug bayonet;
The late 17th century saw the final demise of the pike, and its replacement by the bayonet. The plug bayonet, which blocked the muzzle of the musket and needed to be removed for firing, did not catch on. The earliest military use of bayonets was by the French Army in 1647, at Ypres. These were plug-fitted into the barrel. That prevented firing once they were mounted, but allowed musketeers to act as their own pikemen, which gave infantry formations greater firepower. By 1650 some muskets had bayonets fixed to the gun at manufacture, hinged and foldable back along the barrel. French fusiliers adopted the plug bayonet as standard equipment in 1671; English fusiliers followed suit in 1685. The trouble with firing in successive lines was that it was only practical on a narrow front. In open country, the musketeers could easily be flanked, especially by cavalry. In most battles, the musketeers relied on pikemen to protect them while reloading. Infantry practiced various formations and drills that allowed musketeers to hide behind the pikes while reloading and to take up firing positions as soon as their weapons were ready to use. This system worked pretty well, but it obviously cut down the army’s firepower-sometimes by more than half.

The solution to the problem was to turn the musket into a spear. According to some sources, this was the idea of Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, the great French military engineer in the armies of Louis XIV. It was a solution at least for soldiers. Hunters in France and Spain had for some time been jamming knives into the muzzles of their muskets for protection against dangerous game. It seems that Bayonne, a French city noted for its cutlery, made a type of hunting knife that was favoured for this use. When the French army adopted this weapon, it was called a ‘bayonet’. The earliest reference to the use of the bayonet is in the memoirs of a French officer who wrote that on one campaign, his men did not carry swords, but knives with handles one foot long and blades of the same length. When needed, the knives could be placed in the muzzles of the guns to turn them into spears. The bayonet proved to be a much more effective defense against cavalry than the sword.

There were some drawbacks to the use of plug bayonets when mounted in muskets, When the bayonet was inserted within in the muzzle of a loaded musket and then fired by accident, the gun might indeed explode. This sort of accident seems to have been much more prevalent among civilians who, unlike soldiers, did not load and fire on command. It was so prevalent that in 1660, Louis XIV had to issue a proclamation forbidding the placing of short sword-daggers in the muzzles of hunting guns.

Two pictures in the gallery are of French royal hunts, note in picture 9 the king is holding aloft his same hunting short sword with its distinctive curved blade, and his mistress armed with a boar spear.  read more

Code: 22160

Original & Very Rare Antique Colt Double Action New Navy Revolver, Swing Out Cylinder Model of 1895 Manufactured in 1897 Agentine Contract, One Of Only 5000 Made, And Many Used By The Argentine Cowboy's, The Gaucho's UK Deactivated

Many were acquired by and used by the South American cowboys, the Argentinian Gauchos.

Superbly functioning main spring action. The revolver featured a counter-clockwise rotating cylinder, which could be opened for loading and ejection by simply pulling back on a catch mounted on the left side of the frame behind the recoil shield. It was easily manipulated by the thumb of the right hand, and upon release the cylinder could be poked out sideways with the shooter's forefinger. Empty cases were removed by simply pushing back on an ejector rod to activate a star extractor. The six-shooter could then be quickly reloaded and the cylinder clicked back into place.This type of double action revolver represents a significant step in the evolution of the revolver, as it was Colt's first swing out cylinder revolver. It was both double and single action, it utilized the spring-loaded ejector rod, and the later models could fire the new (at the time) smokeless powder cartridges. All of these features appealed to the armed forces. The earlier D.A. 38 guns, such as the 1894, were designed to fire black powder cartridges only.

The .38 Long Colt was a very early centre fire revolver cartridge, first appearing in 1875 in the Colt New House and New Line revolver models. It gained greater popularity when the Colt Model 1877 double action revolver was introduced. Nick-named the “Lightning” in .38 Long Colt, this model revolver in .41 Long Colt was popularly referred to as the “Thunderer”. The .38 Long Colt was commonly available throughout the last three decades of the 19th century, playing a part in the settlement of the West.
The Colt double action Army revolvers and their .38 cartridge were called to action in 1898 for the Spanish American War. Teddy Roosevelt obtained one that had been retrieved from the Battleship Maine, sunk in Havana harbor. He galloped up San Juan (actually Kettle) Hill towards a blockhouse and its Spanish defenders with this Colt in hand, dispatching an enemy soldier with the revolver. The United States emerged from that war with new possessions in the Caribbean and the Philippines.

Very Rare Colt Modelo Argentino 1895 Made in 1897
It was adopted to replace the Smith & Wesson – Russian Model in use to date, being provided between 1897 and 1898, with copies whose serial number ranges between 80,000 and 85,000, that is, 5,000 units. This revolver is numbered 81587

It was based on the model used by the US Army, with some detailed modifications, which lead to the text that accompanies the "Special Instructions for Chiefs and Officers who direct the lectures at the Academies" ( Internal Regulations of the Military Academy for the National Guard of the Capital - Decree 02/29/1896), {translated} signed by A. Capdevilla on 10/10/1895, indicate: “originated the designation “Revólver Colt, DA .38””. The same text indicates what seems to have been the official designation of its calibre: 9.22 mm., while it corresponded to the .38 Colt Double Action (.38 Colt D.A.).
It is so scarce that so little reference to the contract in Colt records still remains, only the antique Argentine military records contain reference to them

Deactivated with UK certificate not suitable for export.  read more

Code: 25695

A Simply Exquisite Original Bronze Age Short Sword Used From The Trojan Wars To The Greco-Persian Wars Era. The Trojan War Was Waged Against the City of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) After Paris of Troy Took Helen From Her Husband Menelaus, King of Sparta

From the late 2nd millennium BC. to early 1st Millenium BC.
A bronze sword with tapering long central ribbed graduating tapering blade, with solid cast hilt 'bulls horn' and domed pommel A sword that could have been traded with the Archean Greeks, the Mycenean Greeks the Trojan peoples and The Hitites.

The trade of Bronze Age weaponry followed trade routes that started in the the Assyrian Empire, East of Babylon, right through to the Mediterranean region, and all of empires and kingdoms in between. Also, all manner of Bronze Age utilitarian wares, personal adornments, and tools came from this famed bronze smithing region and their trading merchants.

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.

The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BC, but by the mid-19th century AD, both the war and the city were widely seen as non-historical. In 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hisarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars.

Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. Many scholars believe that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. Those who believe that the stories of the Trojan War are derived from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th century BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC, which roughly correspond to archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VII, and the Late Bronze Age collapse. Legend has it that the war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris of Troy, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus of Sparta, fall in love with Paris, who quit Sparta with her and returned to Troy. Menelaus's brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' insult. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans (except for some of the women and children whom they kept or sold as slaves) and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, Aphrodite's son and one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to modern-day Italy.

57 cm long

A most similar example was in the Axel Guttman collection, a collection that was sold in 2002 by Christies

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

Code: 25684

A Wonderful, Napoleonic Wars Period Museum Piece, A Highest Ranking British Officer's Sword Bespoke Commisioned For The Highest Ranking Officers of Both The Navy or Army, A 1790's Admiral of the Fleet or Field Marshal's Sword In Fabulous Condition

A near identical sword was carried by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker (1721 – 21 December 1811), and The Iron Duke, The Duke of Wellington.

Mercurial gilt fluted pattern hilt, with Adam urn pommel and solid silver triple wire binding, oval fluted hilt guard. Triple edged blade, with superb and elaborate engraving and traces of blue and gilt.

The sword used by the most senior of officers of the army and navy of Britain, field marshals and admirals of the fleet, and kings and princes of the royal family, since the 1780's until the 1820's.

Pictures in the gallery of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker, and Field Marshal Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.

This Anglo-Irish soldier, the Duke of Wellington, and statesman fought as Field Marshal of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. With the help from Prussian Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo on June 18, 1815 and became a hero in England.

The office of marshal was already well established in England by the 12th century, but the modern military title of field marshal was introduced into the British army in 1736 by King George II, who imported it from Germany. In Britain the rank came to be bestowed only upon a few senior army officers,

From the 1790's to the 1820's here are the Field Marshals of Britain

Henry Seymour Conway (1793)
HRH Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1793)
Sir George Howard (1793)
HRH The Prince Frederick Augustus, 1st Duke of York and Albany (1795)
John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll (1796)
Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Montreal (1796)
John Griffin Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden (1796)
Studholme Hodgson (1796)
George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend (1796)
Lord Frederick Cavendish (1796)
Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1796)
HRH The Prince Edward Augustus, 1st Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1805)
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Marquis of Wellington (1813)
HRH The Prince Ernest Augustus, 1st Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (1813)
HRH The Prince Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge (1813)
HRH Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1816)
HRH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1816)
Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda (1821)


The ranks of Admiral of the Fleet and Admiral of the Red were formally separated from 1805, with an announcement in the London Gazette that "His Majesty has been pleased to order the Rank of Admirals of the Red to be restored" in His Majesty's Navy..." as a separate role. The same Gazette promoted 22 men to that rank. From the nineteenth century onward there were also occasional variations to the previous requirement that only one Admiral of Fleet could serve at one time. In 1821 George IV appointed Sir John Jervis as a second admiral of the fleet, to balance the Duke of Wellington's promotion as a second Field Marshal in the British Army.

Admirals of the Fleet

12 March 1796 The Earl Howe
16 September 1799 Sir Peter Parker, Bt.
24 December 1811 King William IV at that time as The Duke of Clarence and St Andrews
19 July 1821 The Earl of St Vincent

Excellent condition overall , no scabbard.  read more

Code: 24953

A Superb, Original, 1796 Heavy Cavalry Officer's Sword, Napoleonic Wars and Waterloo Period, with a Broadsword Blade, Steel Combat Scabbard with Close Combat Blade Impact

1796 regulation dress pattern copper gilt hilt, with boatshell guard, D-shaped knuckle bow, urn-shaped pommel, wire bound grip, double edged broadsword blade contained in its all steel combat scabbard, which bears a single blade cut from another sword see photo 10. Upper suspension ring mount lacking. A very good example of these most desirable and beautiful of Napoleonic wars era swords used by an officer in the British heavy cavalry.

It has the traditional 1796 'boat shaped hilt' in copper gilt, in very good order bearing much of its original mercurial gilding, it has its original wire bound grip, a good broadsword double edged blade, and all steel combat grade scabbard.

Used by a Napoleonic wars period officer of the British heavy cavalry, serving in either the Union Brigade, or the 1st Household Brigade.

The Heavy Cavalry regiments were separated into two brigades at Waterloo. The 1st Brigade, known as the Household Brigade, commanded by Major-General Edward Somerset (Lord Somerset), consisted of guards regiments: the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues), and the 1st 'King's' Dragoon Guards The 2nd Brigade, also known as the Union Brigade, commanded by Major-General Sir William Ponsonby, was so called as it consisted of an English (1st, 'The Royals'), a Scottish (2nd, 'Scots Greys'), and an Irish (6th, 'Inniskilling') regiment of heavy dragoons. More than 20 years of warfare had eroded the numbers of suitable cavalry mounts available on the European continent; this resulted in the British heavy cavalry entering the 1815 campaign with the finest horses of any contemporary cavalry arm. They also received excellent mounted swordsmanship training. The two brigades had a combined field strength of about 2,000 (2,651 official strength), and they charged with the 47-year-old Uxbridge leading them and little reserve Scots Greys Regt. The Scots Greys, as part of the Union Brigade so called as it was made up of a regiment of Heavy Cavalry from each part of Britain were some of the finest heavy Cavalry in Europe and certainly one of the most feared. A quote of Napoleon of the charge at the Battle of Waterloo goes;
"Ces terribles chevaux gris! Comme il travaillent!" (Those terrible grey horses, how they strive!) At approximately 1:30 pm, the second phase of the Battle of Waterloo opened. Napoleon launched D'Erlon's corps against the allied centre left. After being stopped by Picton's Peninsular War veterans, D'Erlon's troops came under attack from the side by the heavy cavalry commanded by Earl of Uxbridge including Major General Sir William Ponsonby's Scots Greys. The shocked ranks of the French columns surrendered in their thousands. During the charge Sergeant Ewart, of the Greys, captured the eagle of the French 45th Ligne. The Greys charged too far and, having spiked some of the French cannon, came under counter-attack from enemy cavalry. Ponsonby, who had chosen to ride one of his less expensive mounts, was ridden down and killed by enemy lancers. The Scots Greys' casualties included: 102 killed; 97 wounded; and the loss of 228 of the 416 horses that started the charge. This engagement also gave the Scots Greys their cap badge, the eagle itself. The eagle is displayed in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards museum in Edinburgh Castle. The British Heavy Cavalry, during the Peninsular War and at Waterloo it fought with incredible distinction and exemplary bravery, and saw some of the most incredible and courageous combat. Fighting the elite French Curassiers and Carabiniers of Napoleons Imperial Guard was no mean feat, for at the time the French Cavalry was some of the most formidable in the world, and at their very peak. Never again was the French Cavalry to be as respected and feared as it was during the great Napoleonic era. Some of the battles this may also have been used at were; during 1808-14 The Peninsular Campaign, including, Salamanca , Toulouse, Albuera Talavera, Pyrenees then from 1814: La Rothiere, Rosnay, Champaubert, Vauchamps, Athies, La Fere-Champenoise and Paris
1815: and Quatre-Bras. The last photo in the gallery is of Lady Butler's painting, the Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo. One of the heavy cavalry regiments whose officers would have used in his service this very form of sword.

The swords used by the Union Brigade and Ist household brigade at Waterloo, have examples of their swords in the Royal Collection, The Tower of London Collection, the British Army Museum, and most of the finest British sword collections in the world.

The last photo in the gallery shows a photograph of one section of the collection in the museum of Waterloo, taken in around 1900, showing all the weapons of Waterloo en situ, including all the protagonists {British, French, Prussian and Belgian muskets, swords, pistols, armour uniforms, etc}. The museum was founded and owned by a veteran of the 7th Hussars that fought at Waterloo .
blade length 32 inches  read more

Code: 24189

A Most Rarely Seen Napoleonic Wars Heavy Cavalry Sword. A Fabulous 1808 Napoleonic Wars, Spanish Peninsular Campaign Cavalry Sword

From the invasion of Spain by Napoleon's forces, in 1808. The Peninsular War involved over 127 battles and engagements against Napoleon and the armies under his command, and this sword may well have been used in dozens of these ferocious conflicts

A fabulous, original, example of these very scarce Napoleonic, Spanish heavy cavalry rapiers. A rapier based Spanish late 18th century broadsword.
The hilt is in superb order, with excellent wire bound grip and large shaped bowl, as is the very long broadsword blade.
In 1796 (although there is a controversy around the precise date) a new model sword for Spanish cavalry troopers was adopted. This beautiful example, showing very classic lines and a very similar construction to the previous pattern, presents an almost full cup-hilt in a rapier style, curved quillons and knuckle-bow. The blade was very similar to that of 1728 pattern, having these dimensions: length 940 mm, width 35, thickness 6 mm. Alongside the later 1803 pattern change, these swords were predominantly used by cavalry at the Battle of Bailen {and subsequent battles}. It was the crushing defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armee in the Spanish invasion.
The Battle of Bailen
Fought July 19, 1808, between 15,000 Spaniards under Castaflos, and 20,000 French under Dupont. The French were totally defeated with a loss of over 2,000 men, and Dupont surrendered with his whole army. The Battle of Bailen was contested in 1808 between the Spanish Army of Andalusia, led by Generals Francisco Castanos and Theodor von Reding, and the Imperial French Army's II corps d'observation de la Gironde under General Pierre Dupont de l'Etang. The heaviest fighting took place near Bailen (sometimes anglicised Baylen), a village by the Guadalquivir river in the Jaen province of southern Spain.

In June 1808, following the widespread uprisings against the French occupation of Spain, Napoleon organised French units into flying columns to pacify Spain's major centres of resistance. One of these, under General Dupont, was dispatched across the Sierra Morena and south through Andalusia to the port of Cadiz where an French naval squadron lay at the mercy of the Spanish. The Emperor was confident that with 20,000 men, Dupont would crush any opposition encountered on the way. Events proved otherwise, and after storming and plundering Cordoba in July, Dupont retraced his steps to the north of the province to await reinforcements. Meanwhile, General Castanos, commanding the Spanish field army at San Roque, and General von Reding, Governor of Malaga, travelled to Seville to negotiate with the Seville Junta a patriotic assembly committed to resisting the French incursions?and to turn the province's combined forces against the French.

Dupont's failure to leave Andalusia proved disastrous. Between 16 and 19 July, Spanish forces converged on the French positions stretched out along villages on the Guadalquivir and attacked at several points, forcing the confused French defenders to shift their divisions this way and that. With Castanos pinning Dupont downstream at Andujar, Reding successfully forced the river at Mengibar and seized Bailen, interposing himself between the two wings of the French army. Caught between Castanos and Reding, Dupont attempted vainly to break through the Spanish line at Bailen in three bloody and desperate charges, losing more than 2,500 men.

His counterattacks defeated, Dupont called for an armistice and was compelled to sign the Convention of Andujar which stipulated the surrender of almost 18,000 men, making Bailen the worst disaster and capitulation of the Peninsular War, and the first major defeat of Napoleon's Grande Armee. When news of the catastrophe reached the French high command in Madrid, the result was a general retreat to the Ebro, abandoning much of Spain to the insurgents. France's enemies in Spain and throughout Europe cheered at this first check to the hitherto unbeatable Imperial armies tales of Spanish heroism inspired Austria and showed the force of nation-wide resistance to Napoleon, setting in motion the rise of the Fifth Coalition against France.

The Portuguese and Spanish played an important part in the war. Retrained and reorganised by Marshal William Beresford, Portugal’s soldiers fought bravely alongside those of Britain. The stubborn Spanish defence of cities and towns tied down thousands of French troops. Spanish armies, though frequently defeated, kept reappearing, forcing France to send more armies against them.

French troops were also required to garrison hostile territory and wage a bitter war against Spanish and Portuguese insurgents, the ‘guerrillas’. French communications and supply lines were harassed by their raids and ambushes. By 1812, the French had over 350,000 soldiers in Iberia, but 200,000 were protecting lines of supply rather than serving as front-line troops.

All of these factors meant that although on paper the French heavily outnumbered the British armies in Iberia, they were never able to concentrate enough of their troops to win a decisive victory. The continual drain on French resources led Napoleon to call the conflict the ‘Spanish Ulcer’.


Painting in the gallery by Theodore Gericault. Of a wounded cuirassier, said to be a French cuirassier at the Battle of Bailen. We also show a print of the Spanish Heavy Cavalry of the Line Trooper, 1804, holding his identical sword  read more

Code: 22330

A Stunning, Historical, Napoleonic War’s Period, 1796 Pattern Officer's Combat Sword of William A. Cuninghame, of the 95th

It’s rarity value is due to both it’s known specific history to a Napoleonic Wars family member and it’s condition.
With superb provenance, that is very rare to survive. He was the father of Capt William Cuninghame Cuninghame, hero of the 79th Foot in the Crimean War, and brother of Capt. Thomas Cuninghame of the 45th Foot. One of all three original family swords, owned and used in combat by William Cunningham senior, all with their own built in provenance, from the world renown British Army, serving in the 95th, 45th and the 79th Regiments. All three were acquired, then expertly conserved by us.
They were obtained by us from a direct line family descendant, still possessor of the same family name, and they are all all offered for sale by us separately, but the light infantry sabre of the 45th regiment is now sold. A super, antique and historical, officers combat sword of his ancestor, who fought with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars era. Each sword is engraved with the family name, crest, and motto. This sword, belonged to William Alexander, Cuninghame, who joined his regiment as a junior officer in April 1813, and served as an officer in the 95th regt., Another sword belonged, and was used, by Thomas Cuninghame, William Alexander's elder brother, who served in the 45th regt., both used by them in the Napoleonic Wars, and a basket hilted broadsword which we have also fully conserved, that was used by William Alexander Cuninghame's son, Capt. William Cuninghame Cuninghame, in the Crimean War. According to family record, W.A.Cuninghame while serving with his regiment was wounded in Guadaloupe in 1814, but this may well have been early 1815, during the British invasion to retake the island in Napoleon's Hundred Days period. The Hundred Days war was so called after Napoleon returned from exile in Elba, reformed his army, declared war on the allies, and that culminated in the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium, Wellington's great victory and Napoleon's final defeat. The 1796 Pattern British Infantry Officers Sword was carried by officers of the line infantry in the British Army between 1796 and the time of its official replacement with the gothic hilted sword in 1822. This period encompassed the whole of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Napoleonic Wars, was a series of wars between Napoleonic France and shifting alliances of other European powers that produced a brief French hegemony over most of Europe. Along with the French Revolutionary wars, the Napoleonic Wars constitute a 23-year period of recurrent conflict that concluded only with the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon’s defeat by Wellington, and thus his subsequent second abdication on June 22, 1815. It is interesting that statistically Napoleon had fought and won more battles than the worlds next three great military commanders combined, however, despite his obvious genius he never actually won a war, and Wellington had never lost one.

France had a population of 27,350,000 in 1801 as opposed to Great Britain’s 10,942,146, outnumbering Britain almost three to one, and France had gained much territory warfare since 1792. However, a significant advance in economic strength was to enable Great Britain to wage war against this formidable adversary and to achieve the “miracles of credit” whereby foreign military assistance could be subsidized. The French, whose manufactures progressed less dramatically than the British and whose seaborne trade had been strangled by the superior nature of Britain’s navy, found it impossible to raise funds commensurate with their aggressive policy in Europe, so that Napoleon had to rely on the spoils of conquest and looting to supplement the deficiencies of French finance. As a matter of course, Wellington had forbade his armies to engage in looting of any kind, upon penalty of severe flogging or worse.

The Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were massive in their geographic scope, ranging, as far as Britain was concerned, over all of the five continents. They were massive, too, in terms of expense. From 1793 to the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 the wars cost Britain more than £1,650,000,000. Only 25 percent of this sum was raised by government loans, the rest coming largely from taxation, not least from the income tax that was introduced in 1798. But the wars were massive most of all in terms of manpower. Between 1789 and 1815 the British army had to expand more than sixfold, to about a quarter of a million men. The Royal Navy, bedrock of British defence of its trade, and empire, grew further and faster still. Before the wars it had employed 16,000 men; by the end of them, it employed more than 140,000. Because there was an acute danger between 1797 and 1805 that France would invade Britain, the civil defense force also had to be expanded. The militia was increased, and by 1803 more than 380,000 men were acting as volunteers in home-based cavalry and infantry regiments. In all, one in four adult males in Britain may have been in uniform by the early 19th century.

This sword’s design was introduced by General Order in 1796, replacing the previous 1786 Pattern. It was similar to its prececesor in having a spadroon blade, i.e. one straight, flat backed and single edged with a single fuller on each side. The hilt gilt brass with a knucklebow, vestigial quillon and a twin-shell guard somewhat similar in appearance to that of the smallswords which had been common civilian wear until shortly before this period. The pommel was urn shaped and, in many later examples, the inner guard was hinged to allow the sword to sit against the body more comfortably and reduce wear to the officer's uniform.  read more

Code: 21865

A Heavy Grade 9th to 10th Century Original Viking Socket Spear. An Incredibly Inexpensive Original Viking Battle Spear From The Time of The Viking Seiges of Paris, And The Early Raids Into The British Isles

1100 to 1200 years old. The Viking spear, alongside the axe was the weapon of choice for the Viking warrior. The sword being the weapon of a high ranking Viking and Viking Jarl.

In the final decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries in the British Isles. Here, these monasteries had often been positioned on small islands and in other remote coastal areas so that the monks could live in seclusion, devoting themselves to worship without the interference of other elements of society. At the same time, it made them isolated and unprotected targets for attack by sea. From 865, the Viking attitude towards the British Isles changed, as they began to see it as a place for potential colonisation rather than simply a place to raid. As a result of this, larger armies began arriving on Britain's shores, with the intention of conquering land and constructing settlements there.
The early Viking settlers would have appeared visibly different from the Anglo-Saxon populace, wearing Scandinavian styles of jewellery, and probably also wearing their own peculiar styles of clothing. Viking and Anglo-Saxon men also had different hairstyles: Viking men's hair was shaved at the back and left shaggy on the front, whilst the Anglo-Saxons typically wore their hair long.

The siege of Paris of 845 was the culmination of a Viking invasion of West Francia. The Viking forces were led by a Norse chieftain named "Reginherus", or Ragnar, who tentatively has been identified with the legendary saga character Ragnar Lodbrok. Reginherus's fleet of 120 Viking ships, carrying thousands of warriors, entered the Seine in March and sailed up the river.

Ragnar's Vikings raided Rouen on their way up the Seine in 845 and in response to the invasion, determined not to let the royal Abbey of Saint-Denis (near Paris) be destroyed, Charles assembled an army which he divided into two parts, one for each side of the river. Ragnar attacked and defeated one of the divisions of the smaller Frankish army, took 111 of their men as prisoners and hanged them on an island on the Seine to honour the Norse god Odin, as well as to incite terror in the remaining Frankish forces.

The Vikings reached Paris at the end of the month, during Easter. They plundered and occupied the city, withdrawing after Charles the Bald paid a ransom of 7,000 French livres 2,570 kg (83,000 ozt) in gold and silver.
Ragnar's fleet made it back to his overlord, the Danish King Horik I, but Ragnar soon died from a violent illness that also spread in Denmark

The spear is a pattern welded blade, and although now pitted as is most usual after over 1000 years it is a remarkable survivor of Viking combat warfare, and a remarkably inexpensive piece of original and legendary Viking weaponry, and thus extremely affordable. In chapter 55 of Laxdla saga, Helgi had a spear with a blade one ell long (about 50cm, or 20in). He thrust the blade through Bolli's shield, and through Bolli. In chapter 8 of Krka-Refs saga, Refur made a spear for himself which could be used for cutting, thrusting, or hewing. Refur split orgils in two down to his shoulders with the spear. The spearheads were made of iron, and, like sword blades, were made using pattern welding techniques (described in the article on swords) during the early part of the Viking era . They could be decorated with inlays of precious metals or with scribed geometric patterns
After forming the head, the smith flattened and drew out material to form the socket . This material was formed around a mandrel and usually was welded to form a solid socket. In some cases, the overlapping portions were left unwelded. Spear heads were fixed to wooden shafts using a rivet. The sockets on the surviving spear heads suggest that the shafts were typically round, with a diameter of 2-3cm (about one inch).

However, there is little evidence that tells us the length of the shaft. The archaeological evidence is negligible, and the sagas are, for the most part, silent. Chapter 6 of Gsla saga tells of a spear so long-shafted that a man's outstretched arm could touch the rivet. The language used suggests that such a long shaft was uncommon.

Perhaps the best guess we can make is that the combined length of shaft and head of Viking age spears was 2 to 3m (7-10ft) long, although one can make arguments for the use of spears having both longer and shorter shafts. A strong, straight-grained wood such as ash was used. Many people think of the spear as a throwing weapon. One of the Norse myths tells the story of the first battle in the world, in which Odin, the highest of the gods, threw a spear over the heads of the opposing combatants as a prelude to the fight. The sagas say that spears were also thrown in this manner when men, rather than gods, fought. At the battle at Geirvir described in chapter 44 of Eyrbyggja saga, the saga author says that Steinrr threw a spear over the heads of Snorrigoi and his men for good luck, according to the old custom. More commonly, the spear was used as a thrusting weapon. The sagas tell us thrusting was the most common attack in melees and one-on-one fighting, and this capability was used to advantage in mass battles. In a mass battle, men lined up, shoulder to shoulder, with shields overlapping. After all the preliminaries, which included rock throwing, name calling, the trading of insults, and shouting a war cry (aepa herop), the two lines advanced towards each other. When the lines met, the battle was begun. Behind the wall of shields, each line was well protected. Once a line was broken, and one side could pass through the line of the other side, the battle broke down into armed melees between small groups of men.

Before either line broke, while the two lines were going at each other hammer and tongs, the spear offered some real advantages. A fighter in the second rank could use his spear to reach over the heads of his comrades in the first rank and attack the opposing line. Konungs skuggsj (Kings Mirror), a 13th century Norwegian manual for men of the king, says that in the battle line, a spear is more effective than two swords. In regards to surviving iron artefacts of the past two millennia, if Western ancient edged weapons were either lost, discarded or buried in the ground, and if the ground soil were made up of the right chemical composition, then some may survive exceptionally well. As with all our items it comes complete with our certificate of authenticity. Approx 10 inches longAlmost every iron weapon that has survived today from this era is now in a fully russetted condition, as is this one, because only the swords of kings, that have been preserved in national or Royal collections are today still in a good state and condition.  read more

Code: 22779