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Customer commentswelcome to antique militaria!
I have been a military antiques dealer (based at Grays Antique Market in London's West End until Christmas 2008) for over 45 years: antique swords, weapons, guns, uniforms, helmets, equipment, medals, belt buckles, bayonets and almost all other items of general militaria. British, German, European and worldwide items... I have provided all kinds of arms and armour and military collectibles to both private customers, trade and museum clientele all around the world!
featured antique military items
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Prison Service officer's sword by WKC - German
This is a marked (WKC) Weyersberg & Kirschbaum production from Solingen, which unusually has a solid bronze hilt, rare for the era, as most of these swords had aluminium hilts (gilt for the prison service and a silver finish for the justice administration officials). In 50 years of trading this is the first bronze hilt I have seen.
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Light Cavalry officer's sword, 1788 pattern variant - British
This iron-mounted sabre, dating from the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, would have been carried by a British officer in a cavalry or yeomanry unit. Singularly, it has a backstrap/pommel in the form of a lion's head, something I have never seen on this pattern in over 50 years of arms dealing. All I need is a good portrait to pin it down!
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US light cavalry sabre, model 1860 by Emerson & Silver - American
This classic Union cavalry sabre, with nearly 100% of its original polish to the blade, is marked 'EMERSON & SILVER//TRENTON//N.J.' at the forte, Emerson & SIlver being one of the rarer Union makers with only some 27,000 being made in the course of the war (the Ames swords have recently been reproduced in India).
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Enfield cutlass bayonet, model 1859, 2nd pattern - British (German make - American contract)
This was introduced in 1859 for the Royal Navy to supply a need for a cutlass and a bayonet in one weapon for the naval rifle of the era, a .577 Enfield cap and ball weapon. This is an A & E Holler example - ie a Solingen blade. There are no UK ordnance marks, so this is almost certainly an American export item.
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Cavalry trooper's sword by Carl Eickhorn - Turkish
The guard of this fine sword (marked Carl Eickhorn in Arabic script at the forte) is pierced with the star and crescent, the emblem of the Ottoman Empire. Almanach de Gotha, 1912, gives the total cavalry strengths of the Turkish Army, including Kurdish levies, at about 40,000 horse, indicating this sword's rarity.
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Model cannon by Marklin - German
This fine model of a German field gun comes complete with a small black powder cartridge with a recess for a primer in its base to enable it to be used as a signalling gun or a rather posh toy.
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a little history on my antiques interest
I have been a collector of military antiques since the age of 12, starting with bayonets and moving gradually on to swords, finally entering the broader military antique dealing arena in about 1970. At that stage, I rapidly started to learn about antique English pistols and revolvers.
In about 1980, I broadened my dealing coverage from mainstream militaria to include English campaign medals. The arrival of powerful auction houses in this field drove me back to my original interest in general militaria (swords, bayonets, dirks, guns, pistols, etc).
However, I still maintain a lively interest in all military objects, especially the rare and exotic, eg Imperial Russian and Austrian.
Throughout my dealing career, I have built up my personal collection of antique military prints and drawings and a substantial selection of early military photographs up to 1945, principally German and English. To aid both my dealing and collecting, I have a huge library covering all military aspects of antiques going back to the Middle Ages, and many aspects of antiques in general, especially early English silver.
