Five fascinating arms and armour highlights from upcoming auctions

The mane attraction

Bonhams is offering on November 27 a hunting sword dated 1676, probably German, which features a fierce beast on the hilt (detail pictured above). The side-ring chiselled as a lion in the round, his tail curled over his back, is one of the highlights in the decorations such as monsters… and a squirrel.

The 1676 hunting sword, probably German, estimated at £1500-2000 in Bonhams' London auction on November 27.

The 58.4cm blade is sawback on one edge and also etched with decorations – for example, a crown, an arm emerging from a cloud and holding a banner, a cannon and a panel of scrolling foliage.

Estimate £1500-2000.

View and bid on this hunting sword at Bonhams on thesaleroom.com

Skull assessment

Italian medieval bascinet estimated at £3000-4000 on November 26 at TimeLine Auctions in London.

TimeLine Auctions is offering a Western medieval cervelliere or early bascinet skull in iron, probably Italian, c.1340, in its London sale on November 26. Estimate £3000-4000.

The cervelliere was a very common skull protection since the 13th century in Italy, made of metal and shaped like a simple skull. It was a basic sort of helmet developed in Middle Ages, made of a single piece of cup-shaped metal covering the top of the skull which could be worn over or under the hauberk and other types of heavier helmets.

It comes from an important private family collection of arms and armour after being acquired on the European art market in the 1980s, and then by descent.

You can view and bid on this bascinet on offer at TimeLine Auctions on thesaleroom.com

Mortimer masterpieces

This repeating magazine pistol on the Lorenzoni principle by Harvey Walklate Mortimer, c.1790, carries an estimate of £14,000-18,000 in Thomas Del Mar’s December 4 auction.

Thomas Del Mar of Olympia Auctions in its sale of December 4 includes the Howard Lee Munson collection of firearms by the Mortimer family of gunmakers.

Munson spent half a century studying and acquiring Georgian and Victorian firearms by the Mortimer family.

This ‘extremely rare’ 33 bore flintlock breech-loading repeating magazine pistol on the Lorenzoni principle by Harvey Walklate Mortimer, London, Gunmaker to His Majesty, c.1790, carries an estimate of £14,000-18,000 in Del Mar’s west London auction.

The engraving on the lock is similar to another example of this type, by the same maker, made for Vice Admiral Lord Nelson and now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

View and bid for this Lorenzoni pistol at the Thomas Del Mar auction on thesaleroom.com

Rifle price range

Wallis & Wallis is offering this Edward VII era Rifle Regiment officer’s dress sword in its auction held in Lewes on November 25-26, estimate £150-175.

Wallis & Wallis is offering this Edward VII era Rifle Regiment officer’s dress sword, with a 2ft 9in (84cm) long slender straight blade, in its auction held in Lewes on November 25-26.

It is etched in stylised foliate panels on one side with crowned Edward VII cypher with wreath, and on the other with crown, blank escutcheon and strung bugle. The sword features a regulation triple-bar steel hilt with sideloop and incorporates a crowned strung bugle, plain pommel, chequered backstrap, wirebound fishskin grip, and comes with its leather scabbard.

Estimate £150-175.

View and bid on the Edward VII era Rifle Regiment officer’s dress sword at Wallis & Wallis on thesaleroom.com

Stay single

Czerny is offering this Cogswell & Harrison English gun at its auction taking place in Sarzana, Italy, on December 14, estimated at €900-1200.

Czerny has an English gun available at its auction taking place in Sarzana, Italy, on December 14.

The single-shot, smooth-bore, two-stage, cal. 16 barrel, octagonal at the base, then round, in damask, is marked COGSWELL & HARRISON LTD. / 141 NEW BOND ST. & 126.

Cogswell & Harrison calls itself ‘London’s oldest surviving gun maker’. The firm’s roots go back to 1770, although the current name dates to 1863 when Benjamin Cogswell (Jnr) took Edward Harrison into partnership at 224 Strand (and it has changed hands several times).

This weapon dated 1875-90 is estimated at €900-1200.

View and bid for the Cogswell & Harrison gun at the Czerny auction on thesaleroom.com