An April 13th 1945 Daily Mirror Roosevelt Dies Headline Newspaper

and "End in a Few Days", US Told; A likely unique opportunity to own a piece of WW2 history. It would look splendid framed. Including within its pages is a story of a 20 year old WW2 widow, photographed working as a cinema ticket booth operator, who was told her Killed in Action husband has been posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the rarest and most valorous medal in the world. It details that he stood in open ground on a battlefield in Burma and held back a force of 300 Japanese on his own, from a distance of only 10 yards. When they returned for another assault he used a mortar, single handed, again completely unprotected in open ground, killed 7 then was mortally wounded. These were real and most worthy heroes, not the seemingly pointless self centred media celebrities of today, that appear to be worshiped by todays masses of the 21st century. Also, an article of the 14th Army Killing 1,029 Japs, "its greatest day of Jap-Killing since the fall on Mandalay". Not a piece of Western reportage that we would ever expect to see today! Plus a most peculiar cartoon section that we need not describe in words, humour certainly has changed in 70 years, but we think the pictures say it all??  read more

Code: 20216

A Most Fearsome & impressive Original Medieval Crusaders Battle Mace, 700 to 800 Years Old

A most impressive but fearsome early weapon from the 1200's to 1300's around 700 to 800 years old, and most probably German. On replacement 'display' haft. An incredible elaborate 'pineapple' form lobed head that would be extremely effective at achieving its aim. This is also the form of Mace that could also mounted on a short chain with a haft and then used as a flail mace or scorpian sting for that extra reach while used on horseback. Unlike a sword or haft mounted mace, it doesn't transfer vibrations from the impact to the wielder. This is a great advantage to a horseman, who can use his horse's speed to add momentum to and under-armed swing of the ball, but runs less of a risk of being unbalanced from his saddle. On a Flail it had the name of a Scorpion in England or France, or sometimes a Battle-Whip. It was also wryly known as a 'Holy Water Sprinkler'. King John The Ist of Bohemia used exactly such a weapon, as he was blind, and the act of 'Flailing the Mace' meant lack of site was no huge disadvantage in close combat. Although blind he was a valiant and the bravest of the Warrior Kings, who perished at the Battle of Crecy against the English in 1346. On the day he was slain he instructed his Knights [both friends and companions] to lead him to the very centre of battle, so he may strike at least one blow against his enemies. His Knights tied their horses to his, so the King would not be separated from them in the press, and they rode together into the thick of battle, where King John managed to strike not one but at least four noble blows. The following day of the battle, the horses and the fallen knights were found all about the body of their most noble King, all still tied to his steed.
It is difficult to block with a shield or parry with a weapon such as this on a chain because it can curve over and round impediments and still strike the target. It also provides defence whilst in motion. However the rigid haft does have the advantage as the flail needs space to swing and can easily endanger the wielder's comrades.
Controlling the flail is much more difficult than rigid weapons. Mounted on a replaced old haft. One photo in the gallery is from a 13th century Manuscript that shows knights in combat, and one at the rear is using a stylised and similar Mace [photo for information only and not included with mace]. The head is around the size of a tennis ball. In the gallery is a section of a 13th century illuminated manuscript, The Smithfield Decretals showing two man-sized rabbits killing a restrained man with a mace, known as a 'bizarre and vulgar' illustration. A mace is a blunt weapon, a type of club or virge that uses a heavy head on the end of a handle to deliver powerful blows. A mace typically consists of a strong, heavy, wooden or metal shaft, often reinforced with metal, featuring a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron, or steel.
The head of a military mace can be shaped with flanges or knobs to allow greater penetration of plate armour. The length of maces can vary considerably. The maces of foot soldiers were usually quite short (two or three feet). The maces of cavalrymen were longer and thus better suited for blows delivered from horseback. Two-handed maces could be even larger. During the Middle Ages metal armour such as mail protected against the blows of edged weapons. Solid metal maces and war hammers proved able to inflict damage on well armoured knights, as the force of a blow from a mace is great enough to cause damage without penetrating the armour. Though iron became increasingly common, copper and bronze were also used, especially in iron-deficient areas. The Sami, for example, continued to use bronze for maces as a cheaper alternative to iron or steel swords.

One example of a mace capable of penetrating armour is the flanged mace. The flanges allow it to dent or penetrate thick armour. Flange maces did not become popular until after knobbed maces. Although there are some references to flanged maces (bardoukion) as early as the Byzantine Empire c. 900 it is commonly accepted that the flanged mace did not become popular in Europe until the 12th century, when it was concurrently developed in Russia and Mid-west Asia.
.It is popularly believed that maces were employed by the clergy in warfare to avoid shedding blood (sine effusione sanguinis). The evidence for this is sparse and appears to derive almost entirely from the depiction of Bishop Odo of Bayeux wielding a club-like mace at the Battle of Hastings in the Bayeux Tapestry, the idea being that he did so to avoid either shedding blood or bearing the arms of war. Iron head 2 inches x 2.25 inches across, length 21 inches  read more

Code: 21134

A Most Interesting & Fine Original Antique Edwardian Bastinado or Whipping Cane

Very flexible bamboo cane with a London hallmarked silver top dated 1902. In superb 'whippy' condition. Flagellation was so common in England as punishment that caning, along with spanking and whipping, are called "the English vice".

Caning can also be done consensually as a part of personal 'amusement'
Foot whipping, falanga or bastinado is a method of inflicting pain and humiliation by administering a beating on the soles of a person's bare feet. Unlike most types of flogging, it is meant more to be painful than to cause actual injury to the victim. Blows are generally delivered with a light rod, knotted cord, or lash.

The receiving person is forced to be barefoot and soles of the feet are placed in an exposed position. The beating is typically performed with an object like a cane or switch. The strokes are usually aimed at the arches of the feet and repeated a certain number of times.

Bastinado is also referred to as foot (bottom) caning or sole caning, depending on the instrument in use. The German term is Bastonade, deriving from the Italian noun bastonata (stroke with the use of a stick). In former times it was also referred to as Sohlenstreich
The first clearly identified written documentation of bastinado in Europe dates to 1537, and in China to 960.2 References to bastinado have been hypothesised to also be found in the Bible (Prov. 22:15; Lev. 19:20; Deut. 22:18), suggesting use of the practice since antiquity
Foot whipping was used by Fascist Blackshirts against Freemasons critical of Benito Mussolini as early as 1923. It was reported that Russian prisoners of war were "bastinadoed' at Afion camp by their Turkish captors during World War I. However British prisoners escaped this treatment. Also, as used in days gone by at Eton, Harrow, & Rugby, and by Miss Doris Goodstripe, of 37 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam (apparently)  read more

Code: 23926

A Big, Beautiful, and Impressive Katana Bearing A Very Desirable Name & Signature of the ‘Gassan School’

Very long blade measuring a huge 31 inches from Tsuba to Tip. Signed Osaka-ju Gassan Unryûshi Minamoto Sadakazu. With wave design fuchi kashira highlighted with gilt, gilded menuki of gourds. Original Edo lacquer saya. A very nice Koto sukashi tsuba, probably a Choshu school tsuba, of butterflies and leaves, with a russetted surface.
It is a very beautiful sword, that is bearing the name of one of the great 19th century sword smith school's of ‘Gassan’, yet we price it for it's own merits and beauty alone, as if it was not actually signed personally, but, it has most intriguing possibilities. A few swords, also bearing his signature name, have appeared in the past fifteen years and sold in the best London auction rooms, but similarly without any guarantee at all as to the authenticity of the smith's personal signature, yet they have still sold for very respectable five figure sums. Thus this is a superbly executed sword, and therefore very possibly a Gassan school homage to a piece bearing his personal name.
It has a stunning hamon that looks tremendously vibrant and impressive, with yakideshi. It has a few small pitting marks at the upper end of the blade, but nothing at all to effect it's use in any way.
This beautiful katana has lain externally untouched as a sleeper for nigh on 100 years or more.
Gassan Sadakazu was born in 1836 in Sugoshi Village in Omi Province. He was the son of Tsukamoto Shichirobei. When he was a young boy, he was adopted into the family of the famous sword maker Gassan Sadayoshi who's only living heir died prematurely.
Gassan Sadayoshi was the founder of the Osaka ‘Gassan school’ of sword making. He studied under Suishinshi Masahide until Masahide's death in 1825. At that time he moved to Osaka and started the revived ‘Gassan school’ of sword making which had died out in the early Edo period.

Sadakazu started studying the art of sword making at about age 11. He made his first sword at age 14 and by age 20 was recognized as a top quality swordsmith and horimono carver.
In the early 1860's when his teacher passed the age of 60, he assumed the role of Daisaku and made swords in his father's name. About this time he produced a number of swords in the Bizen or Yamato style in addition to the main Ayasugi tradition. His blade structure featured a modest curvature and a pronounced large boshi with only a slightly rounded edge (fukura-kareru), which were also characteristic of Sadayoshi's work.
Work stopped for Sadakazu from 1876 when the wearing of swords was abolished until around 1887 when Japan went to war with China and the demand for swords resumed.
He died in 1918 after a long and very distinguished career as one of the premier sword makers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

With reference to part of an article {above} by Fred Weissberg on the ‘Gassan School’.  read more

Code: 23309

Rare, Victorian, British Board of Trade, Rocket Apparatus, Combination Gold Coin & Medal. 'Proof of Service at a Wreck'. This 19th Century Coin Medal Was A Value of 5/- For Rocket Launching Servicing A Wreck’ In Distress. {1/- Extra for Saving A Life}

Board of Trade, Life Saving Rocket Apparatus Service Gold Coin-Medal
Obverse: Port broadside view of a full-rigged ship at anchor. Legend: 'BOARD OF TRADE ROCKET APPARATUS'. Reverse: A large royal crown centre. 'PROOF OF SERVICE AT A WRECK'.

Interestingly, we had our first example in 20 years only a week or so ago, which we sold within just an hour or so, but one of our viewers saw our bronze example on our site and offered us this rarer still gold version which is the first we have seen in decades.

To attend a wreck at sea near a coast was very perilous indeed. Ships were only usually in such dire straights due to severe storms and the most foulest of weather. At such a time the crew of the rocket launching were at severe risk of death, that was almost as much as the ships crew. One had to remember the skill of swimming was not remotely as common as it is today, in fact most sailors purposely failed to learned to swim as a quick death by drowning was preferable to a long drawn out fate of swimming in a vast sea awaiting a most unlikely rescue.

The Board of Trade owned the apparatus which was held at Coastguard Stations. Users could claim expenses from the board. The rocket apparatus was used to fire a line to a ship in distress. The line then used to haul over hawsers and the block to be affixed to the mast. Once fixed a breeches buoy could be used, hauled on a continuous whip line, to take off passengers and crew one by one. It was used by Coastguards but also by Volunteer Life Brigades and Life Saving Companies. The first of these founded in Tynemouth in 1864. Coastguards trained the volunteers in the use of the rocket apparatus. This was a medal come coin that had a face value.

Afterwards all those who helped at a shipwreck were awarded one of these coin medals which they could redeem for cash if they so chose. The lesser version had a redemption value of 2/6 {two shillings and sixpence} For attending a wreck, or,.this superior type has a redemption value of 5/- {five shillings} For proof of rocket launching service at a wreck, but with an extra 1/- {one shilling} awarded for saving a life.

They came in three grades, as well as three classifications. There were gold, silver, and bronze grades apparently, although, not of course solid gold, just like the famous Olympic medals, but only in silver or gold finish, never solid gold.

the gold finish is excellent except one small section that has corrupted and now lost its gold surface {see the photos, in the 5,o'clock position on the sailing ship side}

Royal Mint (Tower Hill), London, United Kingdom.  read more

Code: 25777

Pair of Magnificent, French Royal Grade & Simply Superb Solid Silver Mounted 18th Century 'Parisian' Saddle & Duelling Pistols, Last Used in Combat At Waterloo, Bespoke Made by Maitre Kettinis, Arquebusier a Paris, Of Museum Quality

Just part of our stunning, original, Waterloo collection display.

This is truly magnificent pair of Museum grade, highest rank, officer's saddle cum duelling pistols, used by a family descendant of the original owner, who used them in the Seven Years War and American Revolutionary era, and then by his descendant who served in the Napoleonic wars, Peninsular and Waterloo.

The pair of solid silver mounted long, saddle pistols with gold inlaid barrels, bespoke hand made by their Parisian master gunsmith, for their original, nobleman or prince, owner by Maitre Lambert Kettenis of Paris, and we have a photo of an original 18th century document from the office of the Directoire General des Archives, in France, with his name listed for probate in 1770. From the era and quality of royal grade pistols as the world famous Lafayette-Washington-Jackson pistols.

Wonderful carved walnut stocks with rococo flower embellishments solid silver furniture including long eared butt caps, sideplate chisselled with stands of arms, chisselled silver mounted trigger guards hallmarked and barrel ramrod pipes, all sublimely engraved and chiselled with wonderful detailing of florid designs, and stands of arms, fine steel locks, with flintlock later adapted percussion actions, engraved with the name of Maitre L Kettenis.

Very similar to the French Lafayette-Washington pistols made in circa 1775. While of great historical importance, those pistols were also very fine pieces indeed, just like ours, but they had less expensive steel mounts, whereas these are solid silver, but both are typical of the finest gunsmith workmanship of the day. The Washington pistols were purchased by the Marquis de Lafayette, and were presented by him, to General George Washington, during the Revolutionary War in 1778. They, just as these pistols, are finest examples of eighteenth-century sidearms with exquisite carved and engraved Rococo embellishments. The Washington Lafayette pair are likely the best documented pistols of their kind once belonging to Washington. The Washington pair sold in 2002 for just under $2,000,000.00. King George III, acquired another pair of pistols most similar to these and Washingtons, and they are the collection of the Royal Family of England at Windsor Castle. George III ascended the throne in 1760. As with all our antique guns, no license is required as they are all unrestricted antique collectables

These pair of pistols must’ve been handmade for an prince or nobleman of highest status and rank, such as colonel or general, at the time of the Anglo French wars in America in the 1760s and likely used continually through the American Revolutionary War period and into the Napoleonic era. After which they were ‘convert silex’ from flintlock, in order to enhance their performance in poor and wet weather. A system much promoted by Napoleon himself, in fact he made entreaties to the Reverend Forsyth of Scotland, a well known earliest designer of the silex system, to become Napoleon’s consultant to his armoury in Versailles, an offer which Forsyth refused due his loyalty to the British crown.
Flintlocks could not function in damp or rainy conditions, but the system silex surmounted this problem, and enabled such converted pistols for their more effective and efficient use for at least for a further 20 years.

Picture in the gallery is of a surviving register in a French National archive of the official record of the will of Kettenis, Lambert, Maître arquebusier, it further names his wife, as femme Louise Elisabeth. His will was probated 1770-07-10.

This stunning pair are in superb condition for age, and we have left them just ‘as-is’, only one hammer cocks and locks perfectly, yet both actions have superbly crisp and strong main springs, with one small nipple top a/f..  read more

Code: 23558

A Fabulous Circa 1808, A Year XII Silex Pistol for General Staff Officers, Octagonal Rifled Barrel in 17 mm calibre, Napoleonic Period Pistol By Napoleon’s Personal Gunsmith,The Great Jean Le Page of Paris

A Napoleonic pistol made by one of the greatest and collectable makers of France. Chequered grip, octagonal butt cap, octagonal barrel heavy scroll engraved with Le Page of Paris, flared muzzle octagonal barrel with multi groove rifling. Converse silex action, to enable ignition in foul weather.

The first modern use of a General Staff was in the French Revolutionary Wars, when General Louis-Alexandre Berthier (later Marshal) was assigned as Chief of Staff to the Army of Italy in 1795. Berthier was able to establish a well-organised staff support team. Napoleon took over the army the following year and quickly came to appreciate Berthier's system, adopting it for his own headquarters, although Napoleon's usage was limited to his own command group.

The Staff of the Grande Armée was known as the Imperial Headquarters and was divided into two major sections: Napoleon's Military Household and the Army General Headquarters. A third department dependent on the Imperial Headquarters was the office of the Intendant Général (Quartermaster General), providing the administrative staff of the army.

Made and used by a staff officer, from the period of Napoleon’s Grand Armee. The Grand Armee was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empire to exercise unprecedented control over most of Europe. Widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest fighting forces ever assembled, however, it suffered enormous losses during the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, after which it never recovered its strategic superiority.

The Grande Armée was formed in 1804 from the L'Armée des côtes de l'Océan (Army of the Ocean Coasts), a force of over 100,000 men that Napoleon had assembled for the proposed invasion of Britain. Napoleon later deployed the army in Central Europe to eliminate the combined threat of Austria and Russia, which were part of the Third Coalition formed against France. Thereafter, the Grande Armée was the principal military force deployed in the campaigns of 1806/7, the French invasion of Spain, and 1809, where it earned its prestige, and in the conflicts of 1812, 1813–14, and 1815. In practice, however, the term Grande Armée is used in English to refer to all the multinational forces gathered by Napoleon in his campaigns.

Upon its formation, the Grande Armée consisted of six corps under the command of Napoleon's marshals and senior generals. When the Austrian and Russian armies began preparations to invade France in late 1805, the Grande Armée was quickly ordered across the Rhine into southern Germany, leading to Napoleon's victories at Ulm and Austerlitz. The French Army grew as Napoleon seized power across Europe, recruiting troops from occupied and allied nations; it reached its peak of one million men at the start of the Russian campaign in 1812,3 with the Grande Armée reaching its height of 413,000 French soldiers and over 600,000 men overall when including foreign recruits.4

In summer of 1812, the Grande Armée marched slowly east, and the Russians fell back with its approach. After the capture of Smolensk and victory at Borodino, the French reached Moscow on 14 September 1812. However, the army was already drastically reduced by skirmishes with the Russians, disease (principally typhus), desertion, heat, exhaustion, and long communication lines. The army spent a month in Moscow but was ultimately forced to march back westward. Cold, starvation, and disease, as well as constant harassment by Cossacks and Russian partisans, resulted in the Grande Armée's utter destruction as a fighting force. Only 120,000 men survived to leave Russia (excluding early deserters); of these, 50,000 were Austrians, Prussians, and other Germans, 20,000 were Poles, and just 35,000 were French.5 As many as 380,000 died in the campaign.6

Napoleon led a new army during the campaign in Germany in 1813, the defence of France in 1814, and the Waterloo campaign in 1815, but the Grande Armée would never regain its height of June 1812. In total, from 1805 to 1813, over 2.1 million Frenchmen were conscripted into the French Imperial Army

Jean Le Page continued the success of his predecessors as gunsmith to the House of Orleans, King Louis XVI, of the First Consul Bonaparte and then Emperor Napoleon I and King Louis XVIII. The factory is famous for its pistols, guns, luxury white arms and page swords during the First French Empire. During this era, many technical innovations were made such as over oxygenated powder in 1810, a water resistant gun in 1817, and invented the fulminate percussion system for firearms which replaced the flintlock.

Jean Le Page cemented the company’s reputation and position in history. As a gunsmith he is mentioned in numerous pieces of literature, and the firearms produced during this period are those most sought after and displayed in museums and the like, particularly due to their often famous provenance.
As a purveyor of arms to kings he brought in an extremely prestigious clientele and this includes Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vincence, baron Gaspard Gourgaud, the Marshall Emmanuel de Grouchy, General Charles de Flahaut, the Marchioness Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon, the Marshall André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli, Baron Daru, General Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo, and the perfumier Jean-François Houbigant, among others.

Many pieces bear testimony to this sumptuous period, Jean Le Page "is, without doubt, the imperial gunsmith most quoted both in literary texts and in arms notices exhibited in museums". A shooting gun for Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (future Philippe Égalité) is presented to the Museum of the Porte de Hal in Brussels. First Consul Bonaparte's sword is exhibited at the Château de Malmaison. The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris also has several beautiful Le Page pieces including two of Emperor Napoleon I's shooting guns belonging to a series made in 1775 for King Louis XVI and modified around 1806 ; a silex gun that had belonged to King Louis XVIII and a nécessaire box containing a pair of silex guns for children, a gift from King Charles X to the Duke of Bordeaux, future Count of Chambord

The pistol has had an old contemporary thin crack repair at the buttstock, replaced rammer  read more

Code: 20866

A Good Shinto Aikuchi Tanto Samurai Dagger With a Fine & Beautiful Polish Blade. Around 400 years Old. All Original Edo Period Koshirae

The blade has a fine Hamon with a full, back edge temper, and a running itami grain hada. With giant rayskin bound hilt grip and black speckled dark red lacquer saya. Flying geese kozuka, carved buffalo black horn fittings. Shinto period, circa 1620.

Tanto first began to appear in the Heian period, however these blades lacked artistic qualities and were purely weapons. In the Early Kamakura period high quality tanto with artistic qualities began to appear, and the famous Yoshimitsu (the greatest tanto maker in Japanese history) began his forging. Tanto production increased greatly around the Muromachi period and then dropped off in the Shinto period. Shinto period tanto are quite rare. Tanto were mostly carried by Samurai; commoners did not generally carry them. Women sometimes carried a small tanto called a kaiken in their obi for self defence.It was sometimes worn as the shoto in place of a wakizashi in a daisho, especially on the battlefield. Before the 16th century it was common for a Samurai to carry a tachi and a tanto as opposed to a katana and a wakizashi. all the fittings and lacquer are original Edo period, the old saya lacquer has some usual wear marks, and the kozuka small utility knife handle has a small area of age denting.

As once told to us by an esteemed regular visitor, Victor Harris, to us here in our gallery, and the same words that are repeated in his book;

“In these textures lies an extraordinary and unique feature of the sword {all samurai edge weapons are called swords, despite however small} - the steel itself possesses an intrinsic beauty. The Japanese sword has been appreciated as an art object since its perfection some time during the tenth century AD. Fine swords have been more highly prized than lands or riches, those of superior quality being handed down from generation to generation. In fact, many well-documented swords, whose blades are signed by their makers, survive from nearly a thousand years ago. Recognizable features of the blades of hundreds of schools of sword-making have been punctiliously recorded, and the study of the sword is a guide to the flow of Japanese history.”
Victor Harris
Curator, Assistant Keeper and then Keeper (1998-2003) of the Department of Japanese Antiquities at the British Museum. He studied from 1968-71 under Sato Kenzan, Tokyo National Museum and Society for the Preservation of Japanese Swords
Overall length in saya approx 16 inches, blade 11 inches.  read more

Code: 20925

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,

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

Part of a Superb WW1 Trench Warfare Collection, British and German. A Very Rare German Issue DWM Maxim Machine Gun Flyer's Cartridge Belt. From a Crashed German Fighter

Exactly the same type and form that is on display in the Australian War Memorial Museum and taken from a section of German MG08 Machine Gun ammunition belt with bullet reputedly from the aircraft of Baron Manfred von Richthofen. Described on the museum exhibit "A section of German machine gun ammunition belt as used with Maxim MG08 and LMG08 guns and associated development models.

It consists of two layers of khaki cotton webbing, joined with riveted steel dividers forming pockets for the cartridges. This section of belt comprises four such pockets, and is roughly cut off in the middle of the adjoining pocket at either end. The third of the steel dividers (each of which is held in place by three rivets) has a projection at the front, indicating the correct depth to which the bullet should be inserted into the pocket."
History / Summary
Section of cotton webbing ammunition belt once believed to have come from one of the two Luft Maschinen Gewehr (LMG) 08/15s fitted to Baron Manfred von Richthofen's Fokker Dr I aircraft.

The donor, Frank Ronald Rawlinson, enlisted in the AIF in August 1916 and served as 424A 2nd Class Air Mechanic with 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps. When Richthofen's body and the remains of his aircraft were brought to the airfield of 3 Sqadron at Bertangles on the evening of 21 April 1918, Rawlinson together with 666 Sergeant Abner Gilchrist Dalzell and 569 Corporal Edward James McCarty assisted with the removal of clothing from the body. Rawlinson obtained a section of the overalls and part of a belt as souvenirs. He also obtained several items from the Fokker Triplane. These were all donated to the Memorial by him in 1960. A letter describing the circumstances is held on File 749/084/005. Apart from confirming the origin of these relics the letter also confirmed that von Richthofen was wearing a parachute and harness when he was shot down over Australian positions near Corbie. However, despite this claim by Frank Rawlinson it is strongly believed the Maxim aircraft ammo belts did not have spacer tabs, and were only 30mm wide. This we are offering is also most rare near complete WW1 German issue DWM Maxim Machine Gun ammunition belt. The DWM belts came in two design forms, and are often confused by description. ThIs the very rare original Imperial German military issue version, and the more common German export Russian version. The German is by far the rarest, the more common Russian has unique features and was imported to Russia around 1906-1910 complying with the official Russian patterns. Both spacers and starter tags are made of brass in the Russian version, the German as is this one, has a steel starter and spacer tags. The assembly of the starter tags fitted at the end of the belt relies on the German pattern with three hollow rivets, as does this one; whereas the Russian version only involves one rivet. The long spacers on the Russian ones are brass and have a hollow rivet assembling the end of the long spacers, this German one has steel spacers and with a solid end rivet. The starter tags are marked with the manufacturer?s initials D.W.M. and are not dated. The cartridge pockets are numbered every 25 rounds, being printed with black ink in the traditional Imperial German font on the fabric the Russian ones are stamped every ten rounds. The style of the figures inked does exactly correspond to that found on contemporary DWM belts issued to the German Army. As a matter of summary, for belts with DWM marked starter tags, the total length of the long spacers, the hollow rivet assembling the end of the long spacers and the numbering of the cartridge pockets every 10 rounds are all key features that enable to tell apart the other German Export /Russian type. It is suspected that the Russian DWM belts might have been part of an export contract to Russia which also involved the delivery of 7.62x54R Model 1891 round-nosed ammunition from Germany around 1906.  read more

Code: 22073