Japanese Type 1932 Otsu NCO's Gunto Sabre 770mm Blade Serial Numbered Matching Sword and Scabbard

Type 32 Guntō is a government supply non-commissioned officer sword enacted in 1889 (August 23, Meiji 32).
There are two kinds of these Guntōes, the "Kō" for a cavalry trooper and the "Otsu" for a transport soldier.

The "Kō" for the cavalry trooper has long cutting edge length, compared with the "Otsu", and a "Kō" has a leather fingerplate on a guard.

Crab's eye shaped guard nut screw acting as the spring clip holder for retaining the scabbard. Checkered steel haikin hilt backstrap , with kanime-nat crab's eye screw retaining pommel screw.

The Tsuka of the "Otsu" was improved by Japanese sword pattern in 1932 (32 advanced type), and was replaced with the Type 95 Guntō in 1935. The "Kō" was manufactured to the defeat in 1945.
Therefore, the "cavalry department" which was one of the military 3 major arming was reorganised by the trend of the time in 1942 after 1937 at the "armour department." However, the Third Cavalry Brigade was continued till the beginning of 1945, and the Fourth Cavalry Brigade was continued by horse-riding organization to the end of the war.

The "Otsu"was used also for the infantry and military-police non-commissioned officer.

There is a stamp of "Ho" to the bottom of the scabbard chape {Ishizuki}. This is an inspection mark of the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal.

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, as Britain’s oldest established, and favourite, armoury and gallery  read more

Code: 25009

A Very Attractive, Antique Edo Era Ashigaru Armour and Jingasa Helmet

17th to 18th century. Jingasa helmet in hardened leather with large red sun mon, a do cuirass of frontis plate with the same red sun mon, that secures at the back with cords, kusari kote arm sleeves and gauntlets, three panels of ito bound kusazuri, this is the plate skirt that protects the lower part of the body as well as the upper leg. It is laced together to the upper plates.

Ashigaru armour was light, flexible and simpler to make than usual samurai armour. It was worn by spear men foot soldiers, in battle or defensive service, and they may be armed with yari or nagananata {polearms}, yumi {bows with arrows} or tanegashima {muskets}, in most samurai armies. It was the most common form of armour in Rokugan.

In the Ōnin War, ashigaru gained a reputation as unruly troops when they looted and burned Miyako (modern-day Kyoto). In the following Sengoku period the aspect of the battle changed from single combat to massed formations. Therefore, ashigaru became the backbone of many feudal armies and some of them rose to greater prominence.

Those who were given control of ashigaru were called ashigarugashira (足軽頭). The most famous of them was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who also raised many of his warrior followers to samurai status.

Ashigaru formed the backbone of samurai armies in the later periods. The real change for the ashigaru began in 1543 with the introduction of matchlock firearms by the Portuguese. Almost immediately local daimyōs started to equip their ashigaru with the new weapon, which required little training to use proficiently, as compared with the longbow, which took many years to learn. As battles became more complex and forces larger, ashigaru were rigorously trained so that they would hold their ranks in the face of enemy fire.

The advantage of the matchlock guns proved decisive to samurai warfare. This was demonstrated at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, where carefully positioned ashigaru gunners of the Oda and Tokugawa clans thwarted the Takeda clan's repeated heavy cavalry charges against the Oda clan's defensive lines and broke the back of the Takeda war machine.

After the battle, the ashigaru's role in the armies was cemented as a very powerful complement to the samurai. The advantage was used in the two invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597 against the Koreans and later the Ming-dynasty Chinese. Though the ratio of guns (matchlocks) to bows was 2:1 during the first invasion, the ratio became 4:1 in the second invasion since the guns proved highly effective

Some samurai would consider wearing ashigaru armour if a mission required them to travel light and fast, such as scouting, and Ronin were also noted for commonly using ashigaru armour, because of it's availability and lesser cost than elaborate armour

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, as Britain’s oldest established, and favourite, armoury and gallery  read more

Code: 25006

A Wonderful Late Koto to Early Shinto Period Samurai Katana In Superb Condition Circa 450 Years Old. Superb Original Full Suite of Original Edo Koshirae, Including Gold and Shakudo Goto School Mounts & Signed Tsuba

The blade is absolutely stunning in very fine polish, and showing a beautiful billowing, very deep hamon of extraordinary fine quality. Goto gold and shakudo fuchi kashira of deep takebori chrysanthemums and tendrils. Gold menuki of hawks, and a complimentary signed mokko form iron plate tsuba with a hawk in flight with gold highlights. Original Edo tsuka-ito and blade polish, and original Edo saya with fabulous original ishime pattern urushi lacquer of top quality, with minor age bruising and a saya jiri mount of pierced openwork.

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.

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 may be trained by Zen Buddhist masters in meditation and the Zen concepts of impermanence and harmony with nature. The were also taught about painting, calligraphy, nature poetry, mythological literature, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony.

It has been said that 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, it has been said, that if they 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.

Long 29 inch blade, overall in saya 40.3 inches long

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 trading  read more

Code: 24998

A Scarce Infanterie Seitengewehr Model 1871 Mauser Rifle Bayonet With Full Regimental Markings to Sword and Scabbard

The Mauser Model 1871 adopted as the Gewehr 71 or Infanterie-Gewehr 71, or "Infantry Rifle 71" ("I.G.Mod.71" was stamped on the rifles themselves) was the first rifle model in a distinguished line designed and manufactured by Paul Mauser and Wilhelm Mauser of the Mauser company and later mass-produced at Spandau arsenal.

Irish Republicans imported some 1,500 single-shot 1871 Mausers in the Howth gun-running for the nationalist militia called the Irish Volunteers in 1914. They were used in action by the Volunteers in the Easter Rising of 1916, the rebellion aimed at ending British rule in Ireland which began the Irish War of Independence. The 1871 Mauser became known in Ireland as the "Howth Mauser"  read more

Code: 24977

A Superb 'Top Secret' 'Ball Race', A Spare Part of the World Famous 'Little Boy' Bomb , The Very First Atom Bomb Ever Made, and Used in WW2

This amazing piece of history has just returned from use in a documentary on the Manhattan Project and Professor Oppenheimer, as can be seen in the current worldwide movie hit, 'Oppenheimer'

It is the second, 'back-up' spare part that we owned, the first spare part we sold previously, for the infamous 'Little Boy' bomb, the 1st ever Uranium Bomb, that ultimately led to the end of WW2 in Japan, and although devastating to Japan, saved many, many millions of lives, including the hundreds of thousands of allied WW2 POWs in Japanese slave and torture camps, who were to be instantly executed, under Imperial decree, the moment an allied soldier stepped foot on Japanese soil. And, not forgetting the imperial general staff order that every man woman and child in Japan were instructed to kill an allied invading soldier, by whatever means, and every Japanese citizen was ordered to fight to the death, and never surrender. Another most interesting and historical fact, not often known by most today, was that the emperor realised once the atom bombs were dropped, and their god like devastating power revealed, Japan was utterly lost, and what remained of his empire and his people must be saved.

Thus he decided to announce Japan's unconditional surrender. However, considerable elements of the general staff had other ideas, and passionately opposed this decision, so much so, despite him being regarded as a god, an assasination squad under command of Major Hatanaki a fiery eyed zealot, was despatched to the imperial palace to kill him. Fortunately for the world his most faithful and devoted aide hid him in a special protected room, and thus the emperor was able to escape and make his momentous surrender broadcast, and the rest, as they say, is history. In the days that followed the emperor’s radio address, at least eight generals killed themselves. On one afternoon, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, commander of the Fifth Air Fleet on the island of Kyushu, drank a farewell cup of sake with his staff and drove to an airfield where 11 D4Y Suisei dive-bombers were lined up, engines roaring. Before him stood 22 young men, each wearing a white headband emblazoned with a red rising sun.

Ugaki climbed onto a platform and, gazing down on them, asked, “Will all of you go with me?”

“Yes, sir!” they all shouted, raising their right hands in the air.

“Many thanks to all of you,” he said. He climbed down from the stand, got into his plane, and took off. The other planes followed him into the sky.

Aloft, he sent back a message: “I am going to proceed to Okinawa, where our men lost their lives like cherry blossoms, and ram into the arrogant American ships, displaying the real spirit of a Japanese warrior.”

Ugaki’s kamikazes flew off toward the expected location of the American fleet. Fortunately they were never heard from again.
Although barely 76 years old, it is probably one of the rarest items we are ever likely to offer. A unique survivor of the most expensive and intense top secret project of WW2. A superb, micro engineered gyro ball race. We had both spare part Gyro Ball Races, and the other one previously, that we had, we sold to an American private museum collector. This is the secondary spare part, that we acquired from the late collection of Professor Samuel Eilenberg, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University in WW2, that we are delighted to offer for sale. The first, 'principle' part, was used during the construction of 'Little Boy' Uranium Bomb, part of the ultra top secret 'Manhattan Project' and evaporated in the detonation. However, there were two spare parts made at Los Alamos, and we were delighted and most privileged to have acquired both of them. The 1st 'spare' part, we sold earlier, was engraved, this second back-up spare part, was not with it's Los Alamos part code; GYRO PT MK3 A. Code L.B.BOMB. That first spare part we sold recently to a private museum in Florida, USA, this, our second example another MK3 A, is plain and un-engraved, and the 'back-up' spare part. Apparently most component parts of both bombs made at Los Alamos code names; 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' had spare parts, and 'back-up' spare parts, constructed. Importantly, if a main part was damaged in assembly they could not wait the many months it would take for a spare to be made, potentially at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus prudently, emergency spares, and secondary spares, were required. Souvenirs of the Manhattan Project were later officially gifted or presented to many of the consultants and scientists working on, or associated with, the greatest secret project of the 20th century, once the project was officially closed down by the lead physicist Dr. Oppenheimer. For information purposes the diameter of the ball race is 160mm which is within a small tolerance of the diameter of the gun barrel 165mm that barrel was central to the construction of 'Little Boy'. This measurement may indeed be a clue to the relevance to the ball races actual function or use within the project. Unfortunately due to the top secret nature of the whole event Prof Eilenberg did not reveal the ball races specific function, or, even his, no doubt significant, personal contribution, within the project, before his death in January 1998, only that he acquired them at Los Alamos in August 1945, apparently personally given by Oppenheimer. Much of the full schematics are still officially 'Top Secret'. The first spare that we sold was accompanied by top secret Royal Naval photos, and the id plate of the projector used to show the professors, physicists and scientists working on the project, the film of the dropping of 'Little Boy' by the Enola Gay. We show for information only those photos and id plate, but they are not included with this back-up spare part. We also show the engraving, as was on the original spare part we sold, but it is not on this 'back-up' spare. The Manhattan Project was the project to develop the first nuclear weapon (atomic bomb) during World War II by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Formally designated as the Manhattan Engineer District (MED), it refers specifically to the period of the project from 1941–1946 under the control of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under the administration of General Leslie R. Groves. The scientific research was directed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The project succeeded in developing and detonating three nuclear weapons in 1945: a test detonation of a plutonium implosion bomb on July 16 (the Trinity test) near Alamogordo, New Mexico; an enriched uranium bomb code-named "Little Boy" on August 6 over Hiroshima, Japan; and a second plutonium bomb, code-named "Fat Man" on August 9 over Nagasaki, Japan.

The project's roots lay in scientists' fears since the 1930s that Nazi Germany was also investigating nuclear weapons of its own. Born out of a small research program in 1939, the Manhattan Project eventually employed more than 130,000 people and cost nearly $2 billion USD ($23 billion in 2007 dollars based on CPI). It resulted in the creation of multiple production and research sites that operated in secret.

The three primary research and production sites of the project were the plutonium-production facility at what is now the Hanford Site, the uranium-enrichment facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the weapons research and design laboratory, now known as Los Alamos National Laboratory. Project research took place at over thirty different sites across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The MED maintained control over U.S. weapons production until the formation of the Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947. We also have an original photo print taken from HMS Colossus, part of 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron, that was based in the Pacific, commanded by Rear Admiral Harcourt. It was taken on 7th August 1945 the day after Little Boy was detonated. It is a picture of two I/d profiles of two Japanese T/E fighters that were originally observed in July 1945. These photographs were sent to the Manhattan Project HQ, but why, to us, this remains a mystery. Also, another souvenir, the serial tag from the Army Air Corps Bell and Howell sound projector, that apparently showed the original film of the detonation of 'Little Boy' to Professor Eilenberg and others from the project after the Enola Gay mission. Those souvenirs we had accompanied the sale of the first and engraved spare ball race, and not this one. We show in the gallery, for information only, a Paul R. Halmos's photograph of Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998, shielding his face left, and Gordon T. Whyburn (1904-1969) in 1958 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh. For example, in relation to the desirability of original items connected to this monumentally historical mission, two other souvenirs were sold some 16 years ago in the US. The Little Boy was armed on the mission by removing the green safety plugs, and arming it with red arming plugs. This was undertaken by 23 year old Lt. Morris Richard Jeppson, who armed the bomb during the flight. For this perilous task he was awarded the Silver Star for his unique contribution to the mission. Jeppson, however, kept a few of the green plugs that signified his role in the bombing as souvenirs. He sold two of them in San Francisco for $167,500, at auction, in 2002, however, the US federal government claimed they were classified material and tried, but failed dismally, to block the sale in the courts, however the presiding Judge ruled that all of the Little Boy artefacts, details etc., are effectively, now, in the public domain and free to be sold at will. We were very fortunate to acquire these fascinating pieces, from Prof Eilenberg's collection, from a doctor and lecturer of oriental studies in London, who acquired them himself some years ago from a dear colleague of Prof Eilenberg. This rare piece, the back-up gyro ball race spare part, does not bear engraving, and does not come with the camera plate or official photos, but we can supply copy photo images of the originals. Plus, an all important Certificate of Authenticity.  read more

Code: 22797

A Unique Leaf From The Published Work of Nicolas Jenson Printed in 1472

A single original surviving leaf from one of the earliest and rarest books ever printed. A complete volume of this work, if were ever to be on the open market could be worth well over a million pounds. Nicolas Jensen, who is roundly considered one of history?s greatest printers and typographers, turned out beautiful volumes from his Venetian workshop in the 15th century. There is a similar leaf from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers by the Jensen Press, 1475. In resides in the Salisbury House Permanent Collection. A great and incredibly rare treasure from the very earliest days of printed text, with original handwritten annotations. This is a Folio. 6pp plus and original unique leaf from Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius's "In Somnium Scipionis Exposito". In Publisher's wrappers. 1 of only 73 ever published folio's that contained an original unique leaf from the master's great work of 1472. In very good condition. In The Manual Of Linotype Typography, the folio containing the rare single leaf was published in 1923, he clearly regarded him as one of the three greatest master printers of all time, alongside Gutenberg and Aldus. To own an original unique piece of Jenson's work, with annotations may be considered by some as one of the greatest privileges afforded to admirers of the printed word. An entire volume would be priceless, or at the least exceeding a million pounds or considerably more. Some hypothesize that Jenson studied under the tutelage of Gutenberg, the man who printed the rarest and most valuable book of all time, the Gutenberg or Mazarin Bible [one was apparently lost on the Titanic]. Jenson worked before the greatest English printer, the legendary William Caxton, and the very first book ever to be printed in English by Caxton was in 1473, "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye" Jenson's story; In October 1458, while acting as Master of the French Royal Mint, Jenson was sent to Mainz, by King Charles VII, to study the art of metal movable type. Jenson then went to Mainz to study printing under Johannes Gutenberg. In 1470 he opened a printing shop in Venice, and, in the first work he produced, the printed roman lowercase letter took on the proportions, shapes, and arrangements that marked its transition from an imitation of handwriting to the style that has remained in use throughout subsequent centuries of printing. Jenson also designed Greek-style type and black-letter type. By 1472, Jenson had only been printing for two years. Even so, his roman type quickly became the model for what later came to be called Venetian oldstyle and was widely imitated. Though Jenson's type was soon superceded in popularity by those of Aldus and Garamond, it was revived again by William Morris in the late 19th century and became the model of choice for a number of private press printers.

Twentieth century commercial interpretations include Centaur and Cloister lightface, and most recently, ITC Legacy and Adobe Jenson. The books of Johann and Wendelin de Spira were printed with a new fount, a roman
type; this was a style of type that is familiar to the present day, but was at the time a radical innovation. A year later, in 1470, a new, slightly lighter and more elegant version appeared in books with a new imprint, that of Nicolas Jenson. In the colophons of books
printed from 1470 his name appears along with praise for his typographical skills. It is here that we see for the first time statements that leave no room for doubt. Jenson hasrightly become famous as the designer and cutter of the punches for the new roman typefaces as well as other founts that for a long time were the standard for legal and
theological works. Confirmation of his status as typographer is found in his last will and testament, written in 1480, where he made careful dispositions for what should be done
with his punches, the tangible results of a life?s experience and work that he wished to be protected. All these circumstances together lead to the notion that it was Jenson who improved the production of movable type by cutting excellent punches, a skill that he
had brought from the traditions of the Mint in Paris, and that he may first have applied inMainz to the long-lasting types used by Fust and Schoeffer.It is only in the last ten years of his life that Nicolas Jenson abandoned his anonymity,
and became prominent as a printer of magnificent books. Executed in sober, almost sculptural layouts they became models for centuries of printing. A famous example is the monumental edition of Pliny?s classical encyclopaedic work, his Historia naturalis, published by Jenson in 1472. An Italian translation, also published by Jenson, appeared in 1476 . The translation and printing were commissioned by the Florentine merchant Girolamo Strozzi, who also took care of the marketing.
Following in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, whose library contained numerous works on European history, politics, and culture, the Library of Congress has many comprehensive European collections. The rarest of these works come to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
A special category of the division's European holdings is its collection of incunabula--books printed before 1501. Printed during the first decades of printing with movable type, these very rare and valuable books cover the whole spectrum of classical, medieval, and Renaissance knowledge and represent many of the highlights of the division's European materials. Over its nearly two-hundred-year history the Library of Congress has collected nearly 5,700 fifteenth-century books, the largest collection of incunabula in the western hemisphere. When Congress originally established its Library in 1800 and saw its collections destroyed by fire in 1814, it had no fifteenth-century books. Neither did the collection that Thomas Jefferson sold to Congress in 1815. This is not surprising because the books in the first Library served the need for general literature, and Jefferson primarily collected modern, scholarly editions in handy formats.

For the first fifty years or so after the acquisition of Jefferson's collection, the Library acquired incunabula very sparingly. The 1839 Catalogue of the Library of Congress lists only 2 incunabula: the Chronecken der Sassen (Mainz: Peter Schoeffer, 6 March 1492) and Ranulphus Hidgen's Polychronicon (Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde, 13 April 1495). The earliest incunabulum with a recorded date of acquisition is a 1478 edition of Astesanus de Ast's Summa de casibus conscientiae (Venice: Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen, 18 March 1478).
The date that marks the real beginning of the incunabula collection at the Library of Congress is April 6, 1867, when the last shipment of Peter Force's library was received at the Capitol. His personal library held approximately 22,500 volumes, including 161 incunabula. The collection had some important books. The earliest imprint was Clement V's Constitutiones (Mainz: Peter Schoeffer, 8 October 1467); also included were a copy of Hartmann Schedel's Liber chronicarum (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 12 July 1493) and Jenson's printing of Pliny's Historia naturalis (Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 1472).
Gutenberg, Aldus and Jenson  read more

Code: 22403

An Iron Plate Katana Edo Tsuba Decorated With Small Figures In Rain Garb

Circa 1650. Small fishermen towing nets wearing rain hats and tied straw body coverings. With large fauna as a side decoration. With kozuka and kogaiana. The Tsuba can be solid, semi pierced of fully pierced, with an overall perforated design, but it always a central opening which narrows at its peak for the blade to fit within. It often can have openings for the kozuka and kogai to pass through, and these openings can also often be filled with metal to seal them closed. For the Samurai, it also functioned as an article of distinction, as his sole personal ornament  read more

Code: 19525

A Most Intriguing, Early, Wide Bladed Mayan or Aztec Form Sacrificial Knife, Beautifully Carved Head of Possibly Vucub Caquix or Quetzalcoatl The Wind Spouting God, Upon the Stag-Horn Hilt

Acquired from an early, rare edged weapon collector, who sold us his other very similar example of this rare piece, around two months ago. now sold

An early antique wide hammer forged blade in an an almost Bowie style, with its clipped back tip form, and a single cutting edge. It is of a most unusual form of hilt with a large bladed knife, and may for tribal sacrificial purposes, or, a tribal ceremonial knife.

The carving is very reminiscent of the Mayan, Incan and Aztec culture, but some knives of this form can be little like those from Bali. The Aztec looking wind spouting snake head demon, is rather intriguing, and superbly executed, but as this is the first we have seen quite like this we can only suggest the comparisons we have seen in the past 50 years.

Vucub-Caquix is the name of a bird demon defeated by the Hero Twins of a Kʼicheʼ-Mayan myth preserved in an 18th-century document, entitled ʼPopol Vuhʼ. The episode of the demon's defeat was already known in the Late Preclassic Period, before the year 200 AD. He was also the father of Zipacna, an underworld demon deity, and Cabrakan, the Earthquake God.

To the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was, as his name indicates, a feathered serpent. He was a creator deity having contributed essentially to the creation of mankind. He also had anthropomorphic forms, for example in his aspects as Ehecatl the wind god. Among the Aztecs, the name Quetzalcoatl was also a priestly title, as the two most important priests of the Aztec Templo Mayor were called "Quetzalcoatl Tlamacazqui". In the Aztec ritual calendar, different deities were associated with the cycle-of-year names: Quetzalcoatl was tied to the year Ce Acatl (One Reed), which correlates to the year 1519.

One hand coloured page in the gallery is Quetzalcoatl as depicted in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, there are also photos of original Mayan and Aztec stone carvings, depicting the god Quetzalcoatl. One can easily see the similarity to the carving depicted on the knife's hilt to these stone carvings

16 inches long overall.  read more

Code: 24978

Original & Rare 19th Century Saxon M.1880 Faschinenmesser Pioneer Artillery Short Sword - Regimentally Marked

Royal Saxon Field Artillery Regiment No.71

Very scarce Saxon sidearm that was only made for one year 1880/1881, in very good condition. Ideal for the collector of rare German swords. No scabbard.

Brass pommel, ribbed grips affixed with three brass rivet insets, steel collar and cross guard, steel single fuller blade, Elmo style blade marked on the ricasso stamped on spine of blade Imperial stamp and Crown A regimentaly stamped


Coloured photograph of the Royal Saxon Field Artillery Regiment 78 in the gallery  read more

Code: 24972

The Lanes Armoury, Antiquarian & Specialist Book Dept. Many Thousands of Books in Stock, Most with a Military & Historical Flavour, Plus, Rare First Editions, Incunabula, Late Medieval Books or Illuminated Pages from Ancient Prayer Books

Just a tiny proportion can seen on our website to buy online, as we have many thousands of books to choose from, and as they are our largest individual selling item, they come and go so fast that individual listing is simply too impractical sadly. If you require a military, or historical book, either antique or modern, please email a request, stating; title, author, and publisher [if known].

Large quantity book purchases [over 30 volumes] can attract discounts wherever possible. We specialise almost entirely in hardbacks, but also military or wartime magazines and journals, both for reference or the study, plus 'coffee table' books.

We also specialise in rare, 1st editions, late medieval books, incunabula and individual illuminated manuscripts, from such as a book of hours etc.

In the past year we were delighted to find for a collector a most rare special edition volume we have been seeking for him for around 10 years. He had been looking for 20 years, had seen two, the last in Edinburgh around 9 years ago, the other at Bonhams Auctioneers in 2012 [that sold for a shade over £50,000 gbp] but neither were quite suitable to his needs.
It was a most rare complete copy of the "Cranwell" 1926 edition of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. by T.E.Lawrence

The book, signed by Lawrence, was an absolute gem

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T. E. Lawrence's famous recount of his role in the Arab Revolt of 1916 - 18, was first printed in the enormously rare "Oxford" edition in 1922. Only eight copies were printed. Lawrence then reworked the text over the next few years, aided by critical commentary from E. M Forster.

In 1926, Lawrence again took The Seven Pillars of Wisdom to print, this time as part of the "Cranwell" edition, privately printed for subscribers. Of the 211 copies printed, 32 were intentionally left incomplete, 170 were complete, lacking three plates, as gifts to the men who had served with Lawrence in Arabia.

The so-called 'Subscribers' Edition—in a limited print run of about 200 copies, each with a unique, sumptuous, hand-crafted binding—was published in late 1926, with the subtitle A Triumph. It was printed in London by Roy Manning Pike and Herbert John Hodgson, with illustrations by Eric Kennington, Augustus John, Paul Nash, Blair Hughes-Stanton and his wife Gertrude Hermes. Copies occasionally become available in the antiquarian trade outside of the UK and can easily command prices of up to US$100,000. Unfortunately, each copy cost Lawrence three times the thirty guineas the subscribers had paid

An advertisement for the 1935 edition quotes Churchill as saying "It ranks with the greatest books ever written in the English language. As a narrative of war and adventure it is unsurpassable."  read more

Code: 15503