Napoleon’s three chamber box lock pistol, 1802

 Gold-Inlaid 120-Bore Three-Barrelled Flintlock Box-Lock Tap-Action Pocket Pistol Presented In 1802 By Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Thornton To Napoleon Bonaparte

Thomas Thornton (1757-1823), self-styled Prince of Chambord and Marquess de Pont, is famous for being one of the most dedicated and flamboyant sportsman of the 18th and 19th centuries, dividing his time between hunting, racing, shooting, angling and hawking. In the shooting field he was certainly the best equipped - in his words he had 'a greater quantity of sporting apparatus of the most valuable and curious manufacture than any other sporting gentleman in England' - and he favoured air weapons and multi-barrelled guns and rifles, including examples with seven, twelve and fourteen barrels. A Francophile, Thornton visited France with his mistress before the revolution and again in 1802 on a sporting journey afforded during the brief peace created by the Treaty of Amiens following Napoleon's brilliant defeat of the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo, fought on 14 June, 1800.

The gold-inlaid decoration was clearly intended to confirm Thornton's feeling of admiration for the First Consul to whom he was presented at the Tuileries together with the Portuguese ambassador and several English naval and military gentlemen. Their meeting was to provide a further opportunity of explaining the virtues of the men once under his command and all the implied regret caused by the untimely separation from them. 'He (Napoleon) noticed my medallion, and enquired the meaning of it. I told him, the legend was Triumph of Truth and that the medallion had been presented to me by the soldiers of the West York. Militia, when I was Lieutenant Colonel of that regiment, as a testimony of their esteem for myself and family'

Thornton is also famous for his succession of mistresses, the first being Alicia Meynell or Massingham known as the 'Norwich Nymph' and famous in her own right for her horse race against Captain Flint at York racecourse in 1804, and again in 1805 on the Knavesmire when she beat Edward Buckle the crack jockey of his day.

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Hundreds of romand gold coins under a theater.

 A unique hoard of gold coins from the late Imperial era has been discovered in downtown Como, Lombardy, northern Italy. They were contained in a soapstone amphora which has a big chunk missing so the pile of glimmering coin within was clearly visible at first sight. They all date to the 5th century. Coins from this period are very rare because currency didn’t flow as efficiently through the imperial economic system. The quantity and quality of the coins are exceptional, especially for the late empire. The 27 were minted in the reigns of the Emperors Honorius (r. 384–423), Valentinian III (r. 425-455), Leo I the Thracian (r. 457-474) and his short-lived co-emperor Libius Severus (r. 461-465).

No such hoard has even been unearthed in northern Italy before. The gold is in an excellent state of preservation making the images and engravings on the coins and thus the engraver, year and sponsor relatively easily to discern. There are an estimated 300 coins in the amphora (which is itself of major significance because it is of a previously unknown design). Whoever placed the jar in that place “buried it in such a way that in case of danger they could go and retrieve it,” . The find site is just a few feet away from the forum of the Roman city where merchants, banks and temples would have done brisk cash business. It was also an elite residential neighborhood, however, so it’s not out of the question that a private individual rolled up his own wealth.

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The Hindsgavl Dagger (Denmark, 1900-1700 BC). This Neolithic flint dagger is considered amongst the most beautiful examples of Scandinavian flint knapping

 In the Neolithic period the flintworkers achieved very high technical standards. The magnificent dagger from Hindsgavl with its blade less than 1 cm thick is the finest example of the flintworkers’ outstanding skills at the end of the Stone Age. It was found around 1876 on tihe island Fænø in the Little Belt. The dagger type is called a ‘fishtail dagger’ because of the fishtail-formed hilt. Pressure-flaked daggers mark the beginning of the end of the Stone Age, and are the reason why the period from 2400-1800 BC is called the Dagger Period.

The worked daggers of flint appeared at the end of the Neolithic era. On the European continent the Early Bronze Age began and the dagger became the man’s most important status symbol. This development also occurred in Denmark, where the daggers were made of flint, but modelled on the European metal daggers. The flintworkers’ knapping technique permitted them to make elegant daggers with thin blades. Their technical skill culminated at the end of the Dagger Period, for example with the Hindsgavl Dagger. This is precisely where we see the competition with the imported metal daggers at its strongest. After this the heyday of the flintworker was over. Although bronze became very popular, the production of beautiful flint daggers continued far into the Bronze Age.

The worked flint daggers were much sought-after among the farming societies in Denmark at the end of the third millennium BC. They came into use all over the country, but were mainly made in northern Jutland and southeastern Denmark. While many of the flint implements of the Stone Age such as axes and knives were essential to life, the daggers do not seem to have been usable for everyday activities. They had another function. They were prestige objects that were used to show the owner’s status. In the men’s graves of the Dagger Period the daggers lie by the waist of the body.

 

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Amazing Hercules Armor of Maximilian II of Austria

 Armor is steel clothing. Like shirts and trousers, it offers protection to the human body: textiles help to insulate the body from the cold and shield it against the sun; metal absorbs the blows of swords and lances. But like clothes made of costly silk or wool, bespoke armor once served to enhance the wearer’s image and display his social rank. Plate armor was one of the most expensive and most noble articles of men’s clothing in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was worn not only in battle but also at triumphal processions, parades and festive tournaments. Armor documented its wearer’s high social standing and his political and military power.

It therefore stands to reason that armor was subject to the same trends in fashion as textile clothing. Indeed, the stylistic changes of textile fashions are closely mirrored in armor. For example, in the late fifteenth century, Burgundian noblemen wore long pointed shoes and tight-fitting clothes that emphasized elegance and weightlessness and accentuated the wearer’s figure. The armor produced north of the Alps around 1480 looked exactly the same; even the elegant poulaine (the long, pointed toe of a shoe) was molded in steel. But in the early sixteenth century the influence of the Italian Renaissance grew stronger, and round, voluminous forms became fashionable. Once again, the new style was enthusiastically taken up in both textile clothing and armor.

Regardless of its form or shape, a piece of armor or article of clothing reflects the Zeitgeist, expressing the period’s taste and ideals. A good example is the Hercules Armor, made about 1555/60 for Archduke (later Emperor) Maximilian II; its entire surface is covered with ornamentation and mythological scenes. Maximilian’s armor symbolizes the universal claim to power of the Habsburg Empire under Emperor Charles V, a claim buttressed by references to antique precursors, alleged ancestors and the Catholic faith. Maximilian’s Hercules Armor is one of the great masterpieces of the refined and sophisticated style typical of the armorers active in Flanders and northern France in the 1550s and 1560s. One of the most important centers of this style was Antwerp, and one of its leading master’s was Eliseus Libaerts (before 1530 – after 1569), to whom some art historians attribute the Hercules Armor now in Vienna. We know that Libaerts produced similar works for the courts of Sweden and Saxony in the 1560s, among them the armor made for Eric XIV of Sweden (1533-1577) in 1560/62 (Stockholm, Livrustkammaren, inv. no. 2505) and the so-called Hercules armor for man and horse (1563/65; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. no.100). 

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Bible-pistol

A gun hidden within a bible, made for Francesco Morozini, Doge of Venice (1619-1694). The owner of the bible could pull the silk bookmark to shoot while the book was still closed.

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Indian mortar shaped like a tiger, 1770

The magnificent tiger is the national animal of India, featuring significantly in its myths and legends. It is no surprise then, that a sitting tiger, as a symbol of courage and power, would make a menacing mortar, with bombs issuing from its jaws and tiger's stripes visible on its surface.

This mortar was cast in India in the late 18th century, possibly for Tipu Sultan (1753-1799), known as the Tiger of Mysore. It is a testament to the skill of the unknown founder, weighing in at around 2,540kg. Two of these tiger mortars were seized in 1838 by the British Army under Major-General Wilson, at Fort Kurnaul, Madras Presidency, during local disturbances. This example remained unfinished without a drilled vent and cannot therefore be fired. After being sent to England, the mortars were held at the Tower of London.

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Caligula's ring

The nearly 2,000-year-old sapphire ring is a wonderful piece of jewelry, but its history makes it all the more fascinating. It's thought to have belonged to Caligula, the notoriously tyrannical ancient Roman emperor. Caligula ruled from 37 CE, but his reign was cut short after four years when he was assassinated by Praetorian Guards—the security force that was meant to protect the emperor.

Women on a ring appears to be a portrait of Caligula's fourth—and last—wife, Caesonia. Roman historian Suetonius described her as “a woman of reckless extravagance and wantonness” and even claimed that she gave birth to their daughter on their wedding day. Caligula and Caesonia had a passionate affair and its said that he even occasionally showed her off, naked, to friends. With such a fiery relationship, it's no wonder that the emperor would want her portrait on his ring. Alas, their love wouldn't last, with Caesonia—and her daughter—being murdered just hours after Caligula was killed. The ring was in the famed intaglio gemstone collection assembled by George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, in the second half of the 18th century. Before that, it was part of a smaller but also renown group of engraved gems collected by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in the first half of the 17th century. Via marriage and descent, Lord Arundel’s gemstone collection was added to the extremely fine pieces the Duke of Marlborough had bought from dealers and private owners on the continent.

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