A Private Collection of Militaria

A Private Collection of Arms is to be sold in Tennants Auctioneers’ Militaria & Ethnographica Sale on 12^th December, which comprises over forty lots of European, Middle Eastern and Asian Swords from the 18^th to the early 20^th centuries, and flintlock and matchlock guns from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Highlights of the collection include a Good Late 18^th Century Indian Shamshir with a single edge curved Wootz blade, a jade hilt – the pommel carved as a ram’s head with a ruby and gold eye – and a silver cross guard with enamel decoration in an embroidered velvet scabbard. The sword was possibly made under the influence of Claude Martin of the Lucknow Arsenal. Frenchman Claude Martin was a Major-General in the British East India Company, a self-made man who had risen through the ranks to become an integral part of the ruling elite of Lucknow. A polymath, Martin amassed a massive fortune and collections of fine art and antiques, whose fortune was used after his death for the benefit and education of the poor. This fine sword is entered with an estimate of £5,000-8,000 (plus buyer’s premium).

Other highlights include a Late 18^th/Early 19^th Century Italian Flintlock Blunderbuss by B Chinelli (estimate £3,000-5,000 plus buyer’s premium), a Rare 18^th Century French Officer’s Sabre ‘Hongrois’ to the Prince Paul Esterhazy’s Hussar Regiment (estimate £1,200-1,800 plus buyer’s premium), and an 18^th Century Moroccan/Arab Nimcha (Mahratta Sabre) (estimate £1,500-2,500 plus buyer’s premium).