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Antique arms and armour: 2003 and 2004 saw collectors and dealers acquiring good-quality material in good condition, auction houses achieving steady prices, with some surprises, and museums making carefully selected purchases

Apollo, Feb, 2005 by Stephen Wood

Arguing that antique arms and armour have a valid place in the fine and decorative arts is often regarded as sophistry. In the commercial arts world, arms and armour have a place less affected by fashion than other antiques. The market in 2003 and 2004 shows that certain truisms apply to arms and armour just as they do to other antiques: quality items always sell well; high quality research and cataloguing pay dividends; good condition is essential; over-hyped auctions generally fail; excessive auction estimates deter buyers; provenance is important; little escapes the internet.

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In 2003-2004, the market continued steady and was largely unaffected by currency fluctuations. American arms continue to be strong sellers, with the iconic word 'Colt' still striking chords with collectors--as witness successful auction sales including Colt revolvers of rare types and in exceptional condition, by Greg Martin Auctions and Bonhams/Butterfields in San Francisco. Greg Martin Auctions dominate this market, for American weapons as well as for foreign material, achieving high prices within accurate estimates, such as the exceptional pair of German wheellock pistols attributed to Caspar Spat of Munich, c. 1640-50, ($414,400 against an estimate of $400,000-600,000; 16 June 2003: a good price for wheellocks at present). Peter Finer, of Ilmington, Warwickshire, sold well in the USA in 2004, to discerning collectors of exceptional--and mainly European--arms and armour, and reported that 60 per cent of his 2003 catalogue had sold by the end of 2004, with Americans figuring prominently among his buyers (Fig. 4).

In the USA, museums have continued actively to collect. A notable acquisition by the new Frazier Historical Arms Museum in Louisville, Kentucky--the presentation sword of Colonel Louis D. Watkins--was published by Walter J. Karcheski Jr. in this magazine in February 2004 and Erik Goldstein, curator of mechanical arts and numismatics at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, has purchased both American weapons (a Revolutionary War American cavalry sabre by Potter of New York, acc. no. 2004-15) as well as fine examples from overseas (a pair of Scottish flintlock all-metal pistols by John Campbell of Doune, c. 1750-75, acc. no. 2003-155). The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has enhanced its collection of arms and armour by purchasing a late-eighteenth-century Russian small-sword (acc. no. 2004.76) and a very important collection of designs for firearms ornamentation executed by the French master Nicolas-Noel Boutet, 1797-1805 (acc. no. 2004.101).

This latter acquisition by the Met underwrites the decorative arts aspects of arms and armour: highly-decorated arms of exceptional quality that were usually made for presentation purposes, such as those from the workshop of Boutet, continue to attract high prices worldwide. This is true wherever such items are sold, a case in point being Gorringes, Lewes, Sussex, in September 2004, where two fine British presentation swords--of the sort that might easily have been sold by any major metropolitan auction house--attracted much interest and sold for 44,000 [pounds sterling] and 23,000 [pounds sterling]; it is unlikely that they would have sold better in London. Such was not always the case however, as was indicated at Dix Noonan and Webb's sale of 'The Baird Jewels and Archive' in London in September 2003, when the presentation sabre (estimate 80,000-120,000 [pounds sterling]) awarded to General Sir David Baird in 1806 failed to attract a buyer. Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh had better luck with their sale of the 'Admiral Milne collection' in March 2003, Milne's presentation sword of 1816 selling for 70,000 [pounds sterling] against an estimate of 25,000-30,000 [pounds sterling]. Thus, quality items, when sensibly estimated and in good condition, continued to be attractive to both collectors and the trade.

In Europe, the auction scene continued much as before, with Hermann Historica in Munich and Fischer in Luzern dominating the market in the German-speaking lands. Both houses achieved good results, HH selling a Landshut iron helmet of c. 1500 for 35,000 [euro] against an estimate of 25,000 [euro] on 4-5 May 2004. The strength of the London auction world in arms and armour has continued, with Bonhams and Sotheby's wing for supremacy (Figs. 1 and 2) and Christie's in third place. By selling items from the Plaut and Beck collections in 2004, Bonhams demonstrated that high prices for quality material, irrespective of nationality, can still be achieved in London, especially when an auction house is active and competitive. Sotheby's, who now hold no arms and armour sales outside London, achieved one among many notable results in their 30 June 2004 sale when they sold a cased pair of early (1814) Wilkinson duelling pistols for 19,000 [pounds sterling] against an estimate of 910,000 [pounds sterling]. Duelling pistols, it is generally agreed, have sold well in this period, although--as always--condition and quality remain of paramount importance.

Antique arms and armour: 2003 and 2004 saw collectors and dealers acquiring good-quality material in good condition, auction houses achieving steady prices, with some surprises, and museums making carefully selected purchases

Apollo, Feb, 2005 by Stephen Wood

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