Peter Finer ~ TEFAF 2023 Highlights

HIGHLIGHTS OF TEFAF MAASTRICHT 2023

CONTENTS

1 A French Model Armour for Man and Horse, in late 16 th Century Style, by E. Granger, Paris

c. 1850

2 A Complete Defence for the Right Arm, for an Armour made for the German Joust, or Stechzeug

c. 1530 – 35

3 A Zischägge and Matching Pauldrons from an Officer’s Blued and Gilt Light Cavalry Armour

c. 1630 – 40

4 An Exceptional Etched Cabasset

c. 1612 – 19

5 A Close Helmet for a Louis XIII Cuirassier Armour

c. 1620 – 30

6 A Two-Hand Sword

c. 1560

7 A Close Helmet of Heavy Cavalry Type

c. 1570 – 80

8 An Early Fluted ‘Maximilian’

Three-Quarter Length Field Armour

c. 1505 – 15

9 A Pair of Spanish Bronze Cannon Barrels

c. 1600

10 An Exceptional Italian Renaissance Hand-and-a-Half Sword

c. 1490 – 1500

11 An Important Augsburg Armour attributed to Desiderius Helmschmid and Jörg Sorg the Elder

Dated 1545 on the helmet

12 A Burgonet Helmet for a Foot or Light Cavalry Armour

c. 1540 – 50

13 An Extremely Rare Elbow Gauntlet for Tournament

First quarter of the 17th century

14 An Embossed Parade Burgonet (Borgonotta tonda )

c. 1540 – 60

15 A Rare Light Rapier Chiselled with the Insignia of a Knight of Chivalric Ordre de Saint-Michel

c. 1635 – 45

16 An Exceptionally Rare Rifled Small-bore Cannon of Twist Steel

Damascened in Gold and Silver dated 1729

17 Two Etched State Halberd carried by the Trabantenleibgarde of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau

dated 1589 and 1611

18 A Nuremberg Wheellock Sporting Carbine

c. 1570 – 80

19 An Exceptional Wheel-Lock Sporting Carbine

c. 1590 – 1600

20 A Deluxe-Quality Hunting-Sword

c. 1742 – 80

21 A French Silver-Mounted Flintlock

Fowling-Piece by Jean Joseph Charrière

Paris silver marks for 1742

22 A Pair of Presentation Quality

Silver-mounted Flintlock Holster Pistols by Wilson

London Silver Hallmarks for 1782

23 A Russian Silver-Mounted Sabre

Granted by the Empress Catherine II to the Don Cossack Ivan dated 1774

24 A Superb Historic Cased Pair of Flintlock Pistols, armes de luxe, by Boutet, Directeur Artiste, Manufacture à Versailles

c. 1805 – 1810

A French Miniature Model Armour for Man and Horse, in late 16th Century Style, by E. Granger, Paris

c. 1850

France, Paris. Steel, brass, bronze, gold, wood, horsehair, and leather.

24.5 in / 62 cm × 16.5 in / 42 cm

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Europe

Private collection, USA

This exquisite miniature armour was as intricately fabricated as any full-scale. It’s maker, E. Granger, of 70 Rue de Bondy (today Rue René Boulanger) Paris, exhibited comparable small models of armour as early as 1844 in the Exposition des Produits de

L’Industrie Française, Paris, and would later show his work, as part of the firm of Granger-Leblanc, at the London International Exhibition on Art and Industry held in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, London.

A Complete Defence for the Right Arm, for an Armour made for the German Joust,

or Stechzeug

c. 1530 – 35

Southern Germany, Nuremberg. Steel, copper alloy, leather. 56 cm / 22 in on mount

PROVENANCE

The Klep van Velthoven Collections, Belgium; probably acquired by the noted collector Norbert Klep van Velthoven (1881-1956)

EXHIBITED

Armes et Armures Anciennes, Association Royale des Demeures Historiques de Belgique, Chateau de Laarne, Septembre – Novembre 1968, Cat. No. 56

An arm defence of this distinctive type formed a part of the specialist armour referred to as a Stechzeug, worn by members of the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire participating in the Deutsche Gestech, the ‘German Joust of Peace’. Within the late 15th century the stechzeughad been refined to the form in which it ultimately continued into the 1530’s and beyond, also for the wider use of patricians among the burgher citizenry of Nuremberg.

The present 16th century example, very possibly from the Nuremberg workshop of Valentin Siebenbürger, is the defence for the right arm, under which the cradled lance was couched. A gauntlet was customarily not required to protect the right hand, protection instead being provided by the large vamplate fitted to the lance ahead of the grip. This vambrace with its fanlike poldermiton and fluted spaulder therefore form a complete element, and equally remarkably they are likely homogenous from the point of their early assembly. A single rigid heavy gauntlet, a manifer, was worn on the left hand only.

A Zischägge and Matching Pauldrons from an Officer’s

Blued and Gilt Light Cavalry Armour of Distinguished Quality, attributed to the workshop of Jacques Vois

c. 1635

Flanders, probably Brussels.

Iron alloy (steel), copper alloy, gold, textile, silver thread.

98 cm / 38.5 in × 72 cm / 28.5 in on mount

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Europe

This helmet and its matching pauldrons are of an exceptional quality. Although constructionally typical of the superior workmanship of the leading Flemish armourers of the period, the extent to which they are decorated is unusual, the particular attention given to the decoration of the subsidiary borders of the articulated plates is alone a striking elevation. Such a high level of attention to decorative detail at this datenaturally suggests senior and distinguished ownership.

Furthermore, these pieces are preserved in fine untouched condition throughout, the outer surfaces have a very light russet finish, the result of the natural oxidisation of their original blued finish, the simple consequence of age. The helmet interior retained an early quilted lining of crimson textile with border ribband of silver thread. The lining is almost certainly the original, comparable linings being seen on a number of the helmets discussed below.

The present zischägge, or horseman’s pot helmet, belongs to a Flemish range of open-faced helmets made in the period 1630-40, the variation in their respective forms dictated by the differing requirements of cavalry and foot soldiers. The Flemish helmets are superior in their well-finished elaborate construction style to the majority of the Germanic versions more widely produced for cavalry within the same period. The same can be said of the east European versions from which the zischägge evolved in western Europe.

These pieces are closely related to a number of identified works attributed to the Brussels workshop of Jacques Vois, and are additionally comparable to armour made by the Flemish Master ‘MP’, each of whom made armour in the early 17th century for members of the Spanish Habsburg court, of which examples are preserved in the Royal Armoury, Madrid.

The present zischägge compares very closely also with another, among three surviving pieces of armour in the Royal Armoury, Madrid, made for Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias (1629-1646), the sole heir to Philip IV. See Valencia de Don Juan, Catálogo de la Real Armería de Madrid, inv. no. B. 21, fig. 72.

Another zischägge, with a possible attribution to the workshop of Jacques Vois is in the Royal Armouries, Leeds (inv. IV.587). This example has blued and gilt finish in common with the present helmet and its construction is once more closely comparable.

Another, of bright steel, again closely comparable to the present one, is in The Art Institute of Chicago (Harding Collection no. 101, inv. no. 1982.2235), while still more comparable Flemish helmets are in Leeds (IV. 165), and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (HEN.M.93-1933).

Further comparison can be made between the form of the skull of the present helmet and that of a Flemish pikeman’s helmet, again in Leeds (IV.1615), the skull also having originally been blued. This helmet is said to have formerly been in the Royal Armoury, Madrid.

This helmet can in turn be compared to helmet A 417 in the Royal Armoury, Madrid, presented to Philip IV of Spain by the Infanta Isabel. It closely relates to a group of armours and detached pieces marked by the Flemish Master ‘MP’; those two helmets appear

to be by the same hand. See Walter J. Karcheski, Jr., ‘Notes on a Newly-identified Armour by the Flemish Master ‘MP’, in the Smith Art Museum, Springfield, MA’, in the Journal of the Arms and Armour Society (London), Vol. XI, No. 6, December 1985.

An Exceptional Etched Cabasset

c. 1612 – 19

German, Nuremberg. Steel. 1

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Sweden

in

The flat-brimmed cabasset or ‘Spanish’ morion shown here is part of that tradition. It is very light, of one-piece construction with a plain, inward turned main edge, showing that its must date to the years around 1600, and is lavishly etched with panels of foot guards with short spears, in contemporary dress, an eagle armed with a sword and sceptre defending the imperial crown, and the arms of Emperor Matthias I (1557–19) over a double eagle displayed, near a collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and surmounted by the mitre-like imperial crown and his MAS monogram. The helmet retains its original lining rivets, themselves retaining much of the original leather lining band, and is stamped inside the brim with the pearled N mark of the Nuremberg guild.

Almost exactly the same decorative scheme, arms and monograms are found on a group of etched halberds for the emperor’s eight personal foot bodyguards (Liebtrabanten, see Bagi 2016) dated 1612, two formerly in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (nos A 2272 and 2256), sold Christies 2019, lot 101, and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, nos 14.25.387, 14.25.461, Philadelphia Museum of Art no. 1977-167-375.

lb 12 oz; 7.5 in × 10 in × 12.5

A Close Helmet for a Louis XIII

Cuirassier Armour

c. 1620 – 30

France. Steel, copper alloy and leather. 19.69 in

PROVENANCE

Private collection, United Kingdom

Acomparable cuirassier helmet, perhaps from the same workshop, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Acc. No. HEN. M.68-1933) and though attributed to a Flemish workshop, there was in fact negligible differentiation between French and Flemish armour of this period. A further example in The Wallace Collection, London (A 179) was formerly in the collection of the Marquis de Belleval.

Comparison can also be made with the close helmets of two consummately important French armours of the period: one made for man and horse made for King Louis XIII, circa 1630, today in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (Inv. G.124 et G. 564), and a French cuirassier armour made for Henry, future Prince of Wales and King, circa 1607. The latter armour was sent to Prince Henry in May 1607, and is now preserved in the Royal Collections at Windsor Castle (RCIN 72832).

A Two-Hand Sword

c. 1560 6

South German or Swiss.

The blade, Munich, from the workshop of Ulrich Diefstetter Steel, bronze alloy (latten), wood and leather. Later grip. 185 cm / 73 in

An historic group of two-hand swords with the hilts and blades broadly related to the present sword is in the Schweizerischen Landesmuseum, Zurich, all of which are ascribed to circa 1560. Further examples, again similar, are in the Bernisches Historisches Museum (from the original zeughaus collection).

Among the two-hand swords in each of these two collections are single examples with the blade bearing the mark of the Munich bladesmith Ulrich Diefstetter (circa 1536-89). His mark, a pair of flails in saltire joined by a horizontal bar, is inlaid in latten on the present blade also. A further blade bearing Diefstetter’s mark is mounted to form a practice ‘Long Sword’ preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. no. 14.25.1111).

A Close Helmet of Heavy Cavalry Type

c. 1570 – 80

Northern Italy, possibly Brescia. Steel, gold, copper alloy. 35.5 cm / 14 in

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Europe

ABrescian helmet with a comparable arrangement of visor and bevor forms a part of a cavalry armour made for a boy, in the Royal Armoury, Turin (B 29). Further examples found on Italian cavalry close helmets of overall corresponding form are seen in the Wallace Collection, London, on a helmet of circa 1585 (A 59), and on another made by Pompeo della Cesa of Milan, circa 1580, in the Museo Nationale di Ravenna (n. inv. 1729).

An Early Fluted ‘Maximilian’ Three-Quarter Length Field Armour

c. 1505 – 15

Southern Germany. Steel, copper alloy and leather. Two neck lames replaced.

185 cm / 72.5 in × 78cm / 31.25 in

PROVENANCE

Private collection, USA

One of the most arresting equestrian portraits of the German Renaissance is a woodcut by Hans Burgkmair the Elder of The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, who reigned 1493-1519. Dated 1508, this portrait presents the emperor in the Italianate postgothic ‘rippled’ or fluted armour, by then the height of taste at the Habsburg court, and representative of the revival of the medieval knightly ideal. Drawn in direct profile and with an astonishing clarity of detail, the image is as much a perfect study of the new armour as it is the Emperor’s portrait.

By 1500 Maximilian’s enthusiastic patronage of the highly skilled Augsburg armourers had undoubtedly progressed the development of a new and distinctly rounded style of proto-fluted armour. This development was, in effect, a stylistic bridge between the dazzling German High Gothic style, which has reached its zenith by 1485-90, and the sculpturally perfect forms which were characteristic of the gothic armourers of Milan and Brescia. In furtherance of his passion, Maximilian established the imperial armour workshops in Innsbruck in 1504. His influence over armour design and production throughout the lands encompassed in the Holy Roman Empire was such that, for modern students, his name is synonymous with fluted armour of the early 16th century.

The present armour is a well-proportioned representation of exactly this early development of fluted South German armour; the constituent elements of its construction involve rare surviving

early examples which are exceptionally well-matched together.

The breastplate, with its original continuous fauld (skirt) and tassets (the upper thigh defences), is striking in this respect: the breastplate is rounded in the Italian manner and finished with gothic-styled plain angular flanged turns across the neck and at the arm openings. The latter are notably constructed without moveable gussets, a feature retained from both the earlier German and Italian gothic styles. The main plate is decorated with three fans of fluting what radiate from the base to a point just above the middle, the shortness and spread of this fluting, without the horizontal closure of a fluted upper border, is again an early feature of transition from the German gothic. The waistplate fitted beneath the main plate carries a fauld of four articulated plates, and these in turn suspend a pair of articulated tassets. All of these plates are decorated in an identical reflection of the fluted design on the breast. The lance-rest is of the German ‘altartig’ type and decorated with inlaid bands of latten.

An interesting comparison with these plates are the near-identical corresponding elements of a fluted armour produced in Nuremberg circa 1505, today preserved in the former imperial collection in Vienna (A 192). A further example of a breastplate of this fluted type exists in Florence, while a statue of St. George in the Bavarian National Museum, Munich, illustrates the breastplate.

The backplate is a good stylistic match with both the breast and the fluted main plates of the collar, although both of these elements may originate closer to 1510-15. The waist plate carries a skirt of three articulated plates, their fans of fluting well-matched with those of the main plate.

The arm defences are constructed with elegant tubular vambraces decorated with early V-shaped groups of flutes and fitted with cowters with large flat fluted wings with V-shaped gutters. The latter compare very closely with those of an Innsbruck armour dated circa 1505-10 by Christian Schreiner the Younger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1991.4).

In common with almost all surviving field armours of the period, the arm defences and the cuisses and poleyns (defending the thighs and the knee joints) are not an exact match; armour was damaged and replaced even in its working life. These parts, however, almost certainly belong to the same small series of armours. A quantity of vambraces of this early type are in the historic collection of the Vienna City Historical Museum (formerly the Vienna city arsenal). A conspicuously unusual, perhaps unique feature in the construction of the present vambraces is that they each incorporate two turners (rather than a single one) of rivets moving in corresponding horizontal slots. Because the lower plates of the poleyns have no provision for fitting a pair of greaves (calf defences) the armour was likely originally intended for a mounted wearer and complete.

The helmet here provides a fitting crown to this armour. Dating circa 1510, and decorated with sprays of fluting, its skull typifies the Italian influence found in the early close helmets of Innsbruck and thence disseminated throughout southern Germany.

A Pair of Spanish Bronze Cannon Barrels

c. 1600

9 Spain. Bronze. 101.5 cm / 40 in

PROVENANCE

The Duke of Lerma (born 1552 – died 1625) Private collection, United Kingdom

Fine cast bronze cannon were always highly prized and a mark of the taste and wealth of the person who commissioned them. This remarkable pair of barrels bears the arms of Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rosas, Duke of Lerma, a favourite of King Phillip III of Spain; the arms can be found on the facade of the vast Ducal Palace he built between 1601 and 1610, which still stands in the town of Lerma, in the province of Burgos, in northern Spain between Santander and Madrid. A gilt-bronze statue of Francisco, Duke of Lerma, in late 16th century armour and kneeling in devotion, is in the Museo Nacional de Escultura, in Valladolid, Spain.

These barrels of these cannon appear to be identical, but their gun founder in fact made a subtle variation in their decoration which helps to tie them together as a pair. The muzzle and chase (forward part)

of each barrels is the same, the muzzle having a robustly handsome moulding decorated with a series of raised bands, while immediately behind this is a band of oval cartouches contained by a narrow raised band, or astragal. At the rear end of the chase is another astragal, ahead of which is a band of formalised palm leaves and behind it a band of guilloche ornament. The dolphins on the second reinforce are of the same naturalistic form, but behind these on one barrel is band of palm leaves while on the other is a band of curved peaked bands resembling a coronet, each peak marked by a trefoil. A shield on each first reinforce contains the arms of the Duke of Lerma beneath a ducal coronet, and behind these are palm leave and coronet-form bands in the reverse order to those on the second reinforce. Behind a plain vent field containing the touch hole or vent the very handsomely formed cascables have elegantly extended trumpet-form buttons.

An Important Renaissance Hand-and-a-Half Sword

c. 1490 – 1500

Italy. Steel, copper-alloy, silver, gold, ebony and bone. 114.3 cm / 45 in; blade length: 89.5 cm / 35¼ in

PROVENANCE

G. P. Jenkinson Collection

Private collection, Germany

Private collection, USA

‘As in all other fields of applied art,’ observed the late Dr John Hayward when writing of it some years ago, ‘the high point of hilt design, either as ceremonial or fighting weapon, was reached during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century.’ ‘The excellence of the weapons of this period’, he went on to note, ‘is reflected in their superb proportions and exquisite decoration.’ He felt this sword ‘worthy of the greatness’ of any of the Renaissance princes.Few could deny that this sword, with is elegant lines and rich ornament arranged in counter-changed panels of contrasting gold, silver and gilt copper-alloy, satisfies this criteria of proportion and decoration.

The gilt hilt of the sword comprises a flattened pearshaped pommel, and long horizontally re-curved flat quillons. Each part is cast and finely chased with running vine leaves, scrolling acanthus foliage, fleursde-lis and plaited ornament, and is inlaid at points with similarly decorated gold and silver panels and, in silver, a female bust whose breasts are bitten by serpents. Beneath is a gaping Medusa’s head from which further serpents rise. The later grip is decorated with a chequer pattern of freshwater mother-of-pearl and ebony panels. The double-edged blade, each side with a pronounced medial ridge, tapers to a point; inlaid in copper is a Lombardic M beneath a cross and the blade is etched at the forte with a pattern of imbricated scales.

LITERATURE

Dr J.F. Hayward, An Italian Renaissance Sword, in Arms and Armour at the Dorchester Ltd, London, 1982, p. 15-17

Dott. Mario Scalini, Reconsidering some Cerimonial Italian Swords of the Renaissance, Hieb- Und Stichfest: Waffenkunde und Living History, Imhof Verlag, Coburg, 2020, p. 75, illustrated p. 74

The quillons of the sword, like its pommel, are divided into panels of various metals: seven on one face and five on the other. The plaques are either chiselled in relief or engraved intaglio with conventional floral ornament. Each side of the cross is chiselled with the same plaited design as the edge of the pommel, while the tongue or langet, which was intended to cover the mouth of the scabbard, is chiselled with acanthus foliage issuing from a scallop shell and fleur-de-lis at its base. The purpose of this socket was practical: to prevent water from seeping into the scabbard and so rusting the blade, should the sword be exposed to rain or humidity.

Although its superlative quality suggests that the sword was intended primarily for ceremonial use, its design nevertheless accords in all essential respects with that of a practical fighting weapon. Its long handand-a-half grip enable it to be wielded with either one or two hands as needed in combat, and its long, acutely pointed blade, would have been suited to both cutting and thrusting. The pronounced medial ridge that runs down each side of the blade serves to stiffen it, and would have made the sword better able to penetrate any gaps in the full plate armour favoured in Renaissance Italy.

Contemporary representations such the illuminations of Tallhofer’s Fechtbuch of 1459 (Schloss Ambras), and the painting The Coronation of the Virgin (1474, Museo Civico, Pesaro), by Giovanni Bellini, show that blades of this medially ridged pattern were fit to the hand-and-a-half sword type, and interestingly both images represent swords with hilts similar to the present example.

Surviving early Renaissance swords of a quality comparable to the present are few in number and invariably associated with persons of great wealth and rank of the period. Among the most celebrated of these is a sword in the Rüstkammer, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (no. hm.a36), identified in early inventories of the Saxon Electoral Armoury as that of Graf Leonhard von Görz (1440–1500). Though its pommel is of plummet-shaped rather than pear-shaped form, the two swords show a strong resemblance. The Rüstkammer blade is inscribed JESUS MARIA and IN ETERNVM, which has led to the idea that it was given to von Görz at the time of his marriage to the Mantuan princess, Paola Gonzaga, daughter of Luigi III Gonzaga in 1478.

A splendid sword today in the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, Vienna (no. a.170) made for Maximilian I, King of Rome and later Holy Roman Emperor (1459–1519) provides another comparison. Though it has a key-shaped pommel and straight rather than re-

curved quillons, it also bears a striking resemblance to the present sword. Its hilt, also of gilt copper-alloy, bears the inscription IN DIO AMOR which together with the representations of Amor and putti in the decoration of its blade has led to the suggestion that the sword was given to Maximilian at the time of his marriage to Bianca Maria, daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan in 1493/4. This would also suggest the sword was created in Milan, then the greatest of all European arms-producing centres. Affording support for that view is the fact that a sword in the Museo Civico L. Marzoli, Brescia, again bearing similarities, was stated to be struck on its tang with the Sforza mark of a viper. Equally worth examination is the decoration of the so called ‘Martelli Mirror’ in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no. 8717–1867), which like the present sword involves gilt copper-alloy inlaid with silver and gold, and is thought to have been produced by the Milanese artist Caradosso Foppa (1452–1527) around 1495–1500.

Through a combination of skill and inventiveness, goldsmiths of Renaissance Italy brought to the decoration of arms a richness and vigour clearly in accord with the spirit of the age. More than in any other period, the nobleman of the Renaissance, with his passion for pageantry and display, looked to contemporary craftsmen to provide him with arms that could compete with or even exceed in splendour those of political rivals.

Hayward, in his assessment, observed that despite affinities with the sword in Dresden, the present sword excelled it in richness. Hayward believed the present sword to be the equal of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I’s wedding sword, and it thus remains tantalising, given the present sword’s opulence, to speculate upon the identity of its powerful original owner. The sword’s elegant ornament and harmonious proportions make it a true masterpiece of the Renaissance: bella e graziosa – beautiful and gracious.

An Important Augsburg Light Field Armour, attributed to the Habsburg Court Armourer Desiderius Helmschmid (1513-79) and to the etcher Jörg Sorg (1522-1603)

Dated 1545

Germany, Augsburg. Steel, gold, copper alloy, leather The gorget and shoulder plates later, and some minor restoration and conservation.

183 cm / 72 in × 62 cm / 24.5 in on display stand

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Florence, Italy.

The Charles Hummel collection, Genoa. Included in the subsequent auction sale of the collection in Gênes (Genoa), lot 6, pl. XIV, May 1908

Sold Gallerie Fischer, Lucerne, August 18-20 th 1931

Purchased by Hans von Schulthess (1885-1951), Schloss Au, near Zurich; most probably acquired at the 1931 Gallerie Fischer sale

Included in the private sale of the von Schulthess Collection by his heirs, 2008

This armour is likely the earliest known collaboration between Desiderius Helmschmid, court armourer to the Emperor Charles V, and the etcher Jörg (II) Sorg, acclaimed masters of their respective disciplines working in Augsburg in the 16th century. The armour is etched on the helmet visor with the date 1545, the year of its completion, which pre-dates by three years the previously held start of their collaboration.

Desiderius Helmschmid (1513-79) was a member of a dynastic family of armourers working with distinction in Augsburg and Vienna, in the service of the Habsburg emperors and the nobility of their courts. His great-grandfather, Jörg the elder, was armourer to the Emperors Friedrichs III and Maximilian I. His grandfather, Lorenz, inherited the latter appointment and his father, Koloman, was in turn armourer to the Emperor Charles V. Katharina (1508-53), the sister of Desiderius, married the etcher Jörg Sorg the elder in 1520, and it was his son of the same name who later worked in association with Desiderius.

LITERATURE

Mario Scalini, ‘Autography problems and study of Renaissance armours: additions to the Helmschmid family and Mattäus Frauenpreiss catalogues’, in A farewell to Arms, studies on the history of Arms and Armour, Legermuseum, Delft, 2004, p.66, fig.9

The Sorg family of etchers and painters formed a similar artisanal dynasty, beginning in 1457. Jörg the elder (1481-1565) and his wife Katharina, were the parents of Jörg the younger (1522-1603), who is recorded as a Master etcher in 1548.

The attribution of the present armour to Helmschmid is naturally made on the basis of close similarities between its construction style and that of some constructional characteristics in armour belonging to the list of Helmschmid’s acknowledged works. Another and equally valid route leading us towards our proposed conclusion has been study of the armours known to have been decorated by Jörg Sorg, and more specifically those for which Sorg was engaged by Helmschmid to etch. In examining Sorg’s decorative treatment of these we have made comparisons with the etching of the present armour, particularly those armours etched with the ‘luntte’ or ‘schuppen und ranken’ pattern which dominates both the present armour and a small number of others acknowledged to be Sorg’s work.

In looking at Sorg’s etching we are assisted by his own ‘Harnisch-Musterbuch’, his personal finely illustrated record of the armours he worked on, detailing in his hand also who they were made for and importantly to us, providing the names of the master armourers who made them. Sorg’s records clearly reveal the measure of his ability, and that in parallel with Desiderius Helmschmid he was also employed by many of the foremost armourers of the day.

The original Musterbuch codex is lodged in the Württembergischen Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, but fortunately the full series of superb watercolour drawings and Sorg’s accompanying notes have been reproduced in a volume published in 1980, together with modern scholarly commentary. Less convenient, given that the present armour was completed in 1545, is that Sorg’s record begins only in 1548, the year in which he is recorded as becoming a Master etcher.

This chronological gap is first bridged by looking at Sorg’s record of an armour made by Hans Luzenberger in 1550, for a member of the Spanish Habsburg court (see MS. fol. 11 v, plate 40). This gives a clear image of the lunette pattern, complete with the small scrollwork designs which individually fill the nodules in the design, and which form part of the lunette pattern on the present armour.

Further comparison is offered by Sorg of a garniture comprising four armour designs, successively for the foot tournament, the tilt at the barrier and two field armours. This elaborate garniture was made by Helmschmid in 1552, for Ludwig Ungnad von Weissenwolf auf Sunegg, Freiherr zu Sanegck, a senior officer of the Habsburg court, active 154266 (see MS. fol. 22 v 23 and 24, number 80). With the exception of the tilt armour, the three remaining manuscript illustrations display the lunette pattern as being closely related to the overall corresponding design on the present armour, albeit lacking the augmentation of the small scrollwork designs and projecting sprigs which are an additional etched detail of the present armour. Given the minute scale of this last feature its omission may perhaps have been an oversight on the part of the manuscript draughtsman.

A survey of surviving armour constructed and etched in the manner of Helmschmid and Sorg includes several detached elements in institutional collections. The first of these is a detached couter (elbow defence) in the von Kienbusch Collection of The Philadelphia Museum of Art (cat.no. 190). This belongs to the same armour as the cuff of a right gauntlet and the front and rear lame of a gorget in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (29.158. 329 and 389).

A strong example is a light field armour in The John Woodman Higgins Armory, Worcester, Massachuesetts (JWHA 2582). This is compared in the catalogue to the work of Desiderius Helmschmid and Jörg Sorg, and once again conforms quite closely to the embossed and etched decoration of the present armour; the catalogue draws attention also to a matching left cuisse (thigh defence) in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Higgins catalogue entry further invites comparison with the ‘Mühlberg’ armour of Charles V, the exchange close helmet included in its garniture has particular relevance to present armour.

In terms of its construction, the present helmet compares particularly closely with the helmet made by Desiderius Helmschmid as a part of the Mühlberg garniture of Charles V. Below the sophisticated double visor, a spring-loaded system of pierced slotted plates shoots rearward to reveal corresponding ventilation slots now open on the left- and right-hand sides of the upper-bevor. Moving on internal spring-catches left and right, the plates are released from their forward closed position by the touch of a projecting button on either side. This ingenious device is extremely rare, and quite possibly exists on no other helmets save the examples of the present armour and the Mühlberg, each a very close constructional, near-twinned match throughout.

The lance-rest on the breastplate of the present armour is again a very rarely seen device of great ingenuity. The arm of the rest is straight in plan and may be pushed back into the breast-plate to form a concealed fit entirely flush with the now streamlined armour surface. The release spring-catch is formed as a rectangular button beneath, neatly flush-fitting.

This device exists on the ‘von Cleve’ half-armour of Charles V, made by Desiderius Helmschmid in 1543; the armour is preserved in the Leibrüstkammer of the Kunsthisorisches Museum, Vienna, the former imperial collection (A 546). The concealed lance-rest was an invention of Koloman Helmschmid and is not known on armour outside of a minority of those produced by Koloman and Desiderius.

On 24th April 1547 the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor led his army to a decisive victory over the Princes of the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League near the town of Mühlberg, in the Electorate of Saxony. In his victory Charles V crushed the Protestant opposition and the German lands were his. Such was the significance of this his most prized victory, that the artist Titian was commissioned to paint an iconic equestrian portrait of the emperor wearing the light cavalry armour of embossed, etched and gilt plate which he had worn during the campaign. This armour, now widely recognised through Titian’s painting, belongs to a magnificent field garniture made by Desiderius Helmschmid, completed in 1544 and so dated. Titian’s portrait of 1548 provides a faithful detailed record of this Helmschmid armour, its embossed and etched decoration provides a clear reflection of the Habsburg court taste of this period (Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. no. P-410).

Known today as the ‘Mühlberg’ garniture, the halflength light armour which formed the core of the garniture, together with most of the constituent exchange pieces, are preserved in the Royal Armoury, Madrid (Patrimonio Nacional, Real Armería, A. 165, A. 184 and A. 182). Included within the surviving garniture is its close helmet, a sophisticated construction in all respects, the current relevance of which has been the subject of our brief commentary above. Faithful records of this helmet exist in two further portraits of Charles V, painted in 1599 and 1608 (though repeatedly depicting the armour wrongly as black and gilt), each by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, after Titian (Patrimonio Nacional. El Escorial, Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo).

The Mühlberg close helmet also appears among a limited number of pieces from the garniture which were recorded in a page of the Inventario Illuminado of the Royal Armoury, the pictorial inventory of the arms and armour of Charles V.

The attribution of the present armour to Helmschmid is made based on close similarities between its construction style and constructional characteristics in Helmschmid’s acknowledged works. Two elements of the present armour offer the most compelling evidence: these are the close helmet, and the specific construction of its visor and upper-bevor, and the concealed lance-rest mounted on the breastplate.

A Burgonet Helmet for wear with a Foot

or Light Cavalry Armour

c. 1540 – 50

Germany, probably a northern workshop. Steel and textile, later cheek pieces.

21.5 cm / 8.5 in × 20.25 cm / 8 in

PROVENANCE

Collection Jeanne et Robert-Jean Charles, Armes et Souvenirs Historiques, part 3, Paris-Hôtel Drouot, 9 th December 1993, lot 555.

The present burgonet is distinguished in particular by the rare addition of a pair of very low, boldly cabled subsidiary combs or crests running along both flanks of the medial comb. A helmet skull with five raised combs is highly unusual; the forging would require additional skill and come at corresponding expense. This helmet is further elevated by the

addition of a plume-holder with a carefully pierced chiselled terminal and retains an early textile lining.

A related example embossed with three combs is in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, formerly the historic city zeughaus collection (Inv.-Nr. W4440).

An Extremely Rare Elbow Gauntlet for Tournament

First quarter of the 17th century

Northern Italy. Steel, copper alloy and gold. Later blade. 53.5 cm / 21 in on mount without blade extended

PROVENANCE

The Viscount Boyne, Brancepeth Castle, Durham, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, 23rd November 1922, lot 226, sold £52., to Fenton

Galerie Fischer, Luzern, 27. November 1961, lot 142

LITERATURE

Keysers Kunst- und Antiquitätenbuch, Band.2 (1959), fig. 305

An Embossed Parade Burgonet (

Borgonotta tonda )

c. 1540 – 60

Northern Italy. Steel. Possibly associated cheek pieces. 25.5 / 10 in × 20.25 cm / 8 in

PROVENANCE

Private collection, France

The ornament embossed over the present burgonet bears striking similarities to that of another Italian burgonet in the Wallace Collection, London (A97). Two further closely related stylistic comparisons exist: a burgonet in the armoury of the Medieval Civic Museum in Bologna (inv. n. 3309, cat. no. 25) and another, very similar, in the former collection of R.L. Scott at the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove (E 1939.65.ax, 1924 cat. no.16) and two further examples are found in the Poldi Pezzoli

Museum, Milan (inv. no. 344, cat. n. 50), and in the Stibbert Museum, Florence (inv no 1987, cat. n. 66).

Another burgonet in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (M.178-1921.) draws specific comparison between this ornament and that of a helmet made by Caremolo di Modrone, and probably presented by Federico Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua to the Emperor Charles V in 1536.

A Rare Light Rapier, the Cup-Guard Chiselled with the Insignia of a Knight of Chivalric Ordre de Saint-Michel

c. 1635 – 45

France, probably Paris. Steel and wood. With later grip. 128 cm / 50.5 in

PROVENANCE

Private collection, France

The French Order of Saint Michael was a royal order of chivalry founded in 1469, as a response by Louis XI to the founding of the Order of the Golden Fleece by Duke Philip of Burgundy, he being the king’s principal competitor for the allegiance of the powerful Dukes of Orléans, de Berry and Brittany.

A light rapier very similar to this is in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (J 382). The hilt is undoubtedly from the same workshop and it was, by tradition, carried by the young Louis XIV in 1649-50. Prior to its acquisition by the Musée de l’Armée, the rapier was in the collection of the Emperor Napoleon III at Château Pierrefonds, and included in the catalogue of the collection published in 1864, cat. no. 277.

An Exceptionally Rare Rifled Small-bore Cannon of Twist Steel Damascened in Gold and Silver (Prunkgeschütz ), made by Johann Sebastian Hauschka for August Wilhelm, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Dated 1729

Signed by the maker ‘S. Hauschka 1729’ on the fillet moulding at the head of the first reinforce. The ducal monogram ‘AW’ and the motto ‘Parta Tveri’, together with the crown and quartered arms of August Wilhelm as Prince-Elector are also found on the series of etched state partisans dated 1718, carried by the trabantenleibgarde of Duke August Wilhelm.

Northern Germany, Wolfenbüttel. Steel, gold, silver, copper alloy (brass, bronze) and wood.

166.5 cm / 65.5 in × 63.5 / 25 in

PROVENANCE

Schloss Wolfenbüttel, residence of the Princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel; one of four cannon of this type made by Hauschka and recorded in the 1732 inventory of the princely armoury, the present cannon historically recorded as ‘Nr.3’ in that inventory.

Subsequently transferred within the latter decades of the 18 th century to the von Veltheim family, Schloss Harbke, Saxony-Anhalt.

In 1945 the castle and its estate were expropriated by Soviet forces, the contents having been removed prior to then by the surviving heir, Mechthild-Karin, Gräfin zu Pappenheim (née von Veltheim, d.2008).

Sold anonymously by her heirs, Christie’s European Noble & Private Collections, part 1, 30 September 2014, lot 178. This cannon, together with another sold as lot 178A (the latter apparently neither signed nor dated but certainly from the Hauschka workshop) were each erroneously ascribed in the auction catalogue as having been made for August Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern.

LITERATURE

Robert Bohlmann, ‘Johann Sebastian Hauschka Braunschweigischer Hof-Büchsenmacher’, in Zeitschriftfür Historische Waffen- undKostümkunde, Band 3 (12), Heft 8, September 1930, pp.187-193

Johann Sebastian Hauschka was a gunmaker and artist of significant accomplishment. The roll of royal recipients of Hauschka’s firearms is a visible testimonial of his worth, namely the Dauphin of France, later Louis XV; the Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI; the Empress Maria-Theresa; King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia; and Crown-Prince Friedrich of Prussia, later Friedrich II, ‘The Great’. Their magnificent firearms from Wolfenbüttel are today preserved in the important museum collections of Leeds, Vienna, Berlin, New York and Brunswick, while further examples of Haushka’s royal and presentation-quality firearms are in the Royal Collections at Windsor and in private ownership.

17

A State Halberd carried by the Bodyguards of Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau

Dated 1589

Southern Germany, probably Augsburg Steel, brass, hardwood 222 cm / 87.4 in

PROVENANCE

Included in the removal of the greater part of the contents of the Salzburg arsenal by Bavarian troops, within the period 1809 - 15, and installed as booty in the Munich city arsenal.

Transferred to the Bavarian Army Museum, Munich, circa 1879.

Acquired in 1961 by Dr. Hans Schedelmann, Vienna (the renowned authority on antique arms), by exchange.

A State Halberd of the Bodyguards of Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, bearing the etcher’s device of Hieronymus Riederer

Dated 1611

Southern Germany, Augsburg Steel, hardwood 236cm / 92.9in

PROVENANCE

Included in the removal of the greater part of the contents of the Salzburg arsenal by Bavarian troops, within the period 1809 - 15, and installed as booty in the Munich city arsenal.

Transferred to the Bavarian Army Museum, Munich, c.1879. Acquired in 1961 by Dr. Hans Schedelmann, Vienna (the renowned authority on antique arms), by exchange.

A Nuremberg Wheellock Sporting Carbine

c. 1570 – 80

Southern Germany, Nuremberg. Steel, fruitwood and staghorn.

Struck with the maker’s mark of the Nuremberg lock maker Georg (Jörg) Seidler, together with the Nuremberg Town mark. Georg Seidler is recorded in the Nuremberg archives as a maker of gun locks, active from about 1550.

74 cm / 29 in

PROVENANCE

The Eugen Nielson Collection, sold Christie’s London, 31 March 1993, lot 274

The compact length of this carbine together with the long belt hook fitted opposite the lock indicate that this piece was intended for use by a sportsman shooting from the saddle. This is a particularly pleasing weapon in all respects, and one which may rightly be said to be of courtly quality. The very unusual attention given to the decoration of the barrel stands out among German firearms of the period, while the elegance of the stock with its delicate and balanced horn inlay provides an intriguing display of motifs from the repertoire of the leading German Renaissance ornamentalists (called Die Kleinmeister ), Hans Sebald Beham, Heinrich Aldegrever and Daniel Hopfer.

While elaborate decorative castings exist among the very finest German 16th century bronze cannon barrels, the similar treatment of steel barrels for corresponding hand firearms is extremely rare. Unlike bronze, the relief decoration of a steel gun barrel is the product of cutting, filing and finishing by hand rather than being more easily cast prior to its hand finishing; the decorative cutting of steel was a lengthy discipline practiced by only a limited number of artisans and was consequently a more costly process. In the present instance the eye is drawn immediately to the barrel. This takes the form of conventional octagonal stages at the breech and muzzle, with decorative girdles at their inner ends. Enclosed between these,

the entire median stage is finely cut with a diagonal close-set pattern of bold convex bands alternating with ribbon-like fluted bands, and these each in turn separated by narrow flutes divided by a threadlike rib. The lock is fitted with a safety-catch and domed wheel-cover which are characteristic of the period 1570-80. The lockplate itself is struck with the maker’s mark of the Nuremberg lock maker Georg (Jörg) Seidler, together with the Nuremberg Town mark. Georg Seidler is recorded in the Nuremberg archives as a maker of gun locks, active from about 1550. Examples of Nuremberg wheellock firearms with the locks bearing Seidler’s highly distinctive mark (in a shield, GS, a hammer between and spectacles impaled beneath) are preserved in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, and in the former Imperial Collection in the arms collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The latter example (WS. A577), a double-barrelled pistol with a double lock, would certainly have belonged to the superb historic core collection.

Perhaps reinforced by the example of this provenance, the suggestion has been made that the coat-of-arms inlaid on the stock of the present carbine are the arms of the Imperial Habsburgs, the Bidenschild. The absence of the imperial crown is said to indicate that this carbine may have been commissioned simply as a gift from the Imperial Household. In heraldry the

individual ownership of a coat-of arms is to a great extent determined by the colours used within the design. When arms are displayed as a monochrome engraving (as in the present instance) their colours, since the 17th century, are differentiated by simple hatched patterns as part of the graphic design. The first known publication of these designated hatchings dates from 1600 and we can only presume that these were established from pre-existing 16th century conventions. The Habsburg arms are a white/silver ground charged with a red horizontal band, and in the present instance the band is not represented as red. The possibility of artistic license or error is, however, a presence in early representations of heraldry and so for this reason the attribution of the present arms can only remain uncertain.

The stock is constructed from fruitwood, its rich tone made the more attractive against the finely engraved white horn mounts and horn inlay, of which the latter is both well-balanced but not sparing in application. As mentioned above, the engraved designs for the mounts and inlay are closely inspired by the engraved small designs for ornament which were published by German artists from the 1530’s onward. These uniquely graphic compact designs, peppered with the motifs and allegories of the period, were widely influential across the full range of German decorative arts and domestic wares, and equally embraced by gun-stock makers throughout the remainder of the century. The present inlaid plan is provided by a series of engraved plaques arranged within slender horn segmental lines. Among these plaques are elongated monsters coiled about the barrel pins set along the length of the fore-end, varieties of grotesque masks both emerging from and issuant from stylised arrangements of foliage and clusters of fruit, and a delicate frame of fleur-de-lys filled with a cornucopia. Again, as referred to above, a shield of arms supported by monsters and grotesques in inlaid opposite the lock. In a more pastoral departure, small-scale hunting vignettes involving a hunter, his hounds, waterfowl and a fox are inset about the base of the butt.

The butt-plate is similarly a departure from the predominant style, engraved with the renaissance figure of Prudentia, the female personification of Prudence as one of the Four Cardinal Virtues of the classical world. As an attribute of her iconography, the falcon is an unusual addition to the figure in 16th century art. To appreciate the inclusion of both the falcon and the conventionally found serpent, it is necessary to first dismiss the accepted modern meaning of the word ‘prudence’ as the exercise of caution and restraint. As one of the foremost Virtues providing the rules for a civilised life, Prudence was defined as being the exercise of foresight and wisdom when applied to a course of action, or more precisely being the ability to judge between the virtuous course and the malevolent one. The falcon is an obvious emblem of foresight and the serpent the now less obvious emblem of wisdom. Personifications of the Virtues with their specific attributes were a popular motif among engravers of the period, their inclusion in the decoration of luxurious objects being seen jointly as an appropriate talisman and moral guide.

An Exceptional Wheel-Lock

Sporting Carbine

c. 1590 – 1600

Southern Germany, Augsburg. Steel, gold, brass, fruitwood, horn. 90.3cm / 35.5 in

PROVENANCE

F. Engel-Gros collection, Geneva Private collection, Switzerland

LITERATURE

Paul Ganz, L’Oeuvre d’un Amateur d’Art La Collection de Monsieur F. Engel-Gros, 2 vols. cat. no. 44, ill. pl. 127d, Geneva and Paris 1925

EXHIBITED

L’Exposition Nationale Suisse de Genève, 1896

This carbine is preserved in superb and untouched condition; as such it is perhaps unused. The second barrel is fired by a second mechanism carried on a single lockplate, the two mechanisms being engaged by a single trigger: this both reduced the weight and maintained the ease of handling. Unlike the best-quality single-trigger game shotguns of modern times, however, the historical owner of this carbine would have needed to cock each of the two mechanisms in succession. Nonetheless, the advantage of a second shot, not only pre-loaded in the second barrel but with the second mechanism already primed and spanned (a laborious and as yet unavoidable process in wheel-lock firearms), this would be considered a clever and significant improvement at the end of the 16th century.

The fulsome extent to which the barrels in this instance have been decorated with etched designs and bands of fire-gilding confirms the status of this carbine as a luxury weapon, but one as much intended for defence as for the hunt. The etched designs are typically from the South German design repertoire and the high quality of the overall finish underscores the origin of the carbine, which is indicated by the control mark of the city of Augsburg. Of particular interest is the trace of foliate designs which very unusually have been lightly applied simply by a blued finish. Similarly, the rare placing of the safety-catch away from the lockplate, or from the stock opposite it, has very logically put the device in convenient reach of the user.

The stock is again very much in the South German fashion, the engraved white staghorn inlay contrasting beautifully with the warm colour of the fruitwood. The engraved details themselves are little changed over the previous thirty years, retaining the same German Late Renaissance subjects and characteristics that are found on furniture, games boards and luxurious inlaid boxes of the period.

The shape of the butt reveals the contemporary influence of Italian fashion in South German gunmaking. Specifically and most famously, the same slender high-combed form exists in the fruitwood stocks of the single-barrelled wheel-lock carbines which were made for the bodyguard troops of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. Made with undecorated barrels and locks in several series over the period 1590-1600, the von Raitenau carbines variously bear the marks of Augsburg, Suhl and of several different South German and Salzburg gunmakers, but they have in common the form of stock shared by the present carbine, similarly enriched with a related style of horn inlay. For comparison an example of the von Raitenau type is in the former imperial arms collection in Vienna (A808).

A Deluxe-Quality Hunting-Sword from the Hunting Wardrobe of a member of the Palatine Branch of the Royal House of Wittelsbach, with close association to Her Serene Highness the Electress Palatine, Elizabeth Auguste von Sulzbach, later Electress of Bavaria

c. 1742 – 80

Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate. Steel, gold, silver, giltbrass, silver-plated brass, polychrome pigments, agate, wood and leather.

61 cm / 24 in

PROVENANCE

Possibly included in the French booty of 1793 from Schloss Oggersheim, seat of Her Serene Highness Elizabeth Auguste, Electress of Bavaria Private collection, Austria

This sword shows the figure of an angel bearing an allegorical flaming heart and standing above the motto ‘AMORIS VINCULA CASTA’ (‘Chains of pure love’). A gilt panel inscribed in Fraktur script beneath, contains a flowery proclamation of the love match of Elizabeth Auguste von Sulzbach and her princely husband, Carl Theodore von Sulzbach. The blade etched and gilt in a complementary style, includes the further allegory of an angelic figure feeding roses to a lion, the motto ‘AMOUR TRIOMPHE DE TOUT’ (‘Love conquers all’) beneath, near a painted bust portrait miniature of a youthful Elizabeth Auguste recessed within a silver frame.

A French Silver-Mounted Flintlock

Fowling-Piece by Jean Joseph Charrière, ‘Place du Lovure (sic) à Paris’

Paris silver marks for 1742

France, Paris. Steel, gold, silver, walnut wood. 149 cm / 58.7 in

PROVENANCE

The Sobieski Stuart brothers, authors of Vestiarum Scoticum and self-proclaimed grandsons of Charles Edward Stuart, aka ‘The Young Pretender’ and ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’. The gun first mentioned in 1839, in a letter written by Charles Hay Alan, the younger of the two brothers. This manuscript letter (now separated from the gun) concerned a group of items including this gun, all said to have belonged to Charles Edward Stuart. Among the other items in this group was an officer’s Scottish regimental mitre cap of circa 174560, subsequently included in Christie’s Jacobite sale, 12 June 1996. A further manuscript letter was written in 1852, by one R.W. Billings, in reference to the gun (now separated also), together with the same group of alleged Stuart items.

Christie’s London, 27 March 1996, ‘The Property of a Lady’, lot 266

Jean-Joseph Charrière was the son of the Paris gunmaker Joseph Charrière, the latter working in the rue du Chantre and having held the royal appointment ‘Arquebusier du Roi’. Jean-Joseph married in 1742 and was recorded in Paris as a master gunmaker on 8th April 1744, working at the Place du Louvre. He was elected to the Paris gunmakers’ guild in October 1754 until October 1756, by a majority of 16 votes, and elected again in 1774.

A chiselled and gilt iron side-plate almost identical to that mounted on the present gun is on a Paris fowling gun by Le Faure and Molliere, circa 1750, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1990.114.1).

A Pair of Presentation Quality Silver-mounted

Flintlock Holster Pistols by Wilson

London Silver Hallmarks for 1782

London. Steel, silver, gold, walnut wood. 42 cm / 16.5 in each

PROVENANCE

Removed from Warwick Castle, Warwickshire (inv. nos. F007/8).

The Warwick Earldom became extinct upon the death of the 8th earl in 1759. The title was then recreated in the same year, in favour of Francis Greville, 1st Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle. These pistols may have come to Warwick Castle as a gift to the 2nd Earl, George Greville, 2nd Earl Brooke (1746-1816).

This pair of pistols display the degree of Georgian opulence reserved for firearms intended as prestigious gifts. It is likely due to them having been received in this manner and then displayed rather than used, that they are preserved in exceptional condition.

23

A Russian Silver-Mounted Sabre

Granted by the Empress Catherine II, ‘The Great’, to the Don Cossack Ivan, son of Vassily Lukianov dated 1774

Russia, probably Moscow. Steel, gold, silver, hardstone, wood .and leather. 90 cm / 25.5 in The Cyrillic inscription reads in translation: ‘By the Grace of God, I, Catherine II, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias, grant this Sabre to the Cossack Ivan, Son of Vassily Lukianov of the army of the Village of Don Cherkz, for his Faithful Service. Presented to the Otaman Timofeyevich Grikov in Moscow, 15th May 1774’.

PROVENANCE

Lord Alistair McAlpine

The Warren Anderson Collection

In August 1745 the Grand Duke Pyotr Fyodorovich, nephew of the Empress Elizabeth and heir to the Russian throne, married Sophia Augusta Frederika of Anhalt-Zerbst, later to become the Empress Catherine II. At the base of the blade of the present sword, is a portrait of the Empress, encrusted in gold upon a gold acanthus spray. In the corresponding position on the reverse side, the Russian Imperial double eagle is similarly encrusted in gold. A closely comparable inscription in Arabic script is on the blade of a sabre in the State Hermitage Museum (Inv. No. B.O.163), transferred from the Imperial Arsenal at Tsarskoye Selo in 1885/6.

A Superb Historic Cased Pair of

Flintlock Pistols, armes de luxe, by Boutet, Directeur Artiste, Manufacture à Versailles

c. 1805 – 1810

France, Versailles. Steel, gold, brass, wood walnut, box, ebony, mahogany, horn, textile.

Case: 49 cm / 19 in × 31 cm / 12.25 in

Height of open case: 37 cm / 14.5 in Each pistol: 38.5 cm / 15.25 in

PROVENANCE

Baron Édouard d’Hanmer-Claybrooke (1787-1842). Thence by descent through the family line

EXHIBITED

Exposition Internationale Universelle, Paris, 1900

The name Nicolas Noël Boutet (1761-1833) instantly summons up images of exceptional firearms made with quite extraordinary skill and of almost matchless quality which so perfectly epitomised the fashionable decorative taste of their day. Boutet presided over the great arms manufactory at Versailles, of which the primary requirement was the production of edged weapons and firearms for French military service, but it is for his non-governmental armes de luxe that he is rightly remembered and celebrated to this day (and which are specifically denoted within the Napoleonic period by the inclusion in his signature of the title ‘Directeur Artiste’ ). The unashamed grandeur of this title was indeed a self-affirmation, but one which has never been in dispute.