Militaria FOR SALE

With slender steel bow, built-in gaffle with foliate decoration and retained by a catch at the rear. Back-sight floral engraved with makers signature BARKER over WIGAN, button trigger on top of action, sprung fore-sight, flat-sided walnut gun-stock with iron mounts and iron reinforcement (original), serial numbered butt plate. Bow 25.75"  Overall length 29", Stock with minor bruises. Some pitting to iron parts.

William Barker was a gunsmith and clockmaker of great reputation. His clocks are represented in most major British museums. He is noted for his bullet crossbows with the late W Keith Neal collection containing similar examples.

Extremely rare circular brass/copper snuff box 3" in diameter depicting Karl XIV Johan, King of Sweden and Norway, formerly Marshal Bernadotte of France. The hinged lid still works but is damaged and the brass is worn through by the hinge, otherwise the stamped brass depiction of Bernadotte is worn but clear in Swedish Field Marshal Uniform wearing his Swedish Order of the Seraphim medal which dates the snuff box to when he was King of Sweden rather than Marshal of France. This is in accord with a note that came with the snuff box stating that the snuff box was one of a number made by Bernadotte as gifts and this one was given to David Steirncrona, his Aide de Camp in 1825. The snuff box may once have been gilded but no gilding remains, nevertheless it is a desirable and rare object.  

Jean Bernadotte had a fascinating life which reads like a fictional novel. Born in1763 in Pau, France, he served a long career in the French Army during turbulent times working his way from a lowly rank through to being appointed Marshal Bernadotte by Napoleon with whom he had a strained relationship, one reason for which was his marriage in 1798 to Désirée Clary, sister-in-law to Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte but more importantly the fiancée of Napoleon himself in 1795. He subsequently acquired the full name of Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. Napoleon made him Prince of Pontecorvo on 5 June 1806, but he stopped using that title in 1810 when his service to France ended and he was elected the heir-presumptive to the childless King Charles XIII of Sweden. He reigned as King of Sweden and Norway from 5 February 1818 until his death in 1844. His legacy is now legendary and with connections to many of todays Royal Families in Europe.

David Henrik Stierncrona, born in Stockholm in 1786 , was a Swedish Count , Chamberlain and Lieutenant General. Army career started as a Cornet  in 1805, after which he became a lieutenant at the Life Guard. In 1810 he became a horse champion in the Life Guard. The same year he was appointed adjutant of King Charles XIII. In 1813, he was the third major at the Skåne Carabinier Regiment and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army . In the same year he was awarded the Military Award of Gold Medal of Honor. In 1816, Stierncrona became the first major at the Skåne Carabiner Regiment. In 1817 he became chief and head of the Skåne Karabinier regiment. In 1819 he advanced to the General Adjuster in the General Staff of the Army. In 1823, Stierncrona became a working member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Knights of Russian St. Anna's 2nd grade. In 1825 he became Major General and Head of the Third Cavalry Brigade and later that year he became adjutant/Aide-de-Camp of Bernadotte, Karl XIV Johan.

A superb quality and important campaign/travelling case in solid flame mahogany with brass corners and strapping, inset miltary style handles and patterned escutcheon engraved with owners name Major General Sir Frederick Trench K.C.H. Original Bramah lock marked Bramah, 124 Piccadilly with rare original working key. Internally refitted but with old fold down section with original makers label behind. Original green baize to underside. A famous owner of this box who was a soldier in the Grenadier Guards seeing service in Sicily, Walcheren, the Peninsula and Holland, and later as a politician and amateur architect responsible for originating the design of the London Embankment. A historic and beautiful display item. Overall dimensions 12.75" long x 9.5" wide x 6" depth. Box has been refinished at some stage but has acquired a nice mellow patina - not shiny. All original brass work present. 

Additional information: 

Major General Sir Frederick William Trench was an ambitious projector of London improvements whilst serving as a Tory MP from 1807 until 1847. He proposed a monumental pyramid to celebrate the victory at Waterloo and he designed an embankment along the north side of the Thames from Charing Cross to Blackfriars in order to relieve traffic on the Strand and create an elegant promenade along the river. The idea met with fierce opposition and was quickly dropped when presented to Parliament in 1824. It was not until 5 years after his death that construction finally began in 1864.

Sir Frederick William Trench served in Sicily in 1806-1807, at Walcheren in 1809, in the Peninsula in 1811 and in Holland in 1814. 

First Regiment of Foot Guards (Grenadier Guards)

Ensign: 12 November 1803

Captain: 12 November 1807 

Major: 1 August 1811

Lieut-Colonel: 25 November 1813

Colonel: 27 May 1825

Major General: 10 January 1837

Lieut General: 9 November 1846

Grenadier Guards, Assistant Quartermaster General, Aide-de camp to the King.

A very rare set of four engravings , circa 1782, showing a series of naval engagements between the Dutch and the British Royal Navy during the Fourth Anglo Dutch War of 1780-1784. This war was fought over a dispute between the British and the Dutch (together with a small French contingent) over the conduct and trading practices of the Dutch with Britain's enemies during the American Revolutionary War. These period Dutch engravings feature the exploits of Captain Le Turc against various British ships. It is thought that this is Pierre Le Turc and that he was a privateer who fought for the Dutch under a Letter of Marque type of arrangement. Apart from the actions depicted in these engravings, Le Turc had successes and failures including an action off West Bay in Dorset on 21st June 1782 when he commanded the Reuze against the Defiance commanded by Lieutenant Cadman.

The engravings are around 165mm x 255mm each mounted in old plain wood frames. Searches reveal that there are currently none of these engravings available anywhere on the internet, either individually or as a set. The only set found resides in the archives of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. An unusual set of engravings with an American Revolutionary War connection. Very good in old frames. Minor foxing. Each engraving has folds indicating they may once have been bound in a book. 

A late Victorian Officers Brass Bound Military Campaign Writing Slope, circa 1885. Good quality solid mahogany folding writing slope with brass corner straps. Rectangular escutcheon to top of slope with initials and name: C C Pearson. Original baize lined base. Brass plated lifting handles to each side with a side drawer accessed by opening slope and removing drawer retaining pin. Original ink bottles, original leather skiver, original lock with key and brass/plated furniture. Side drawer contains original items of owner - a black and white photograph in his uniform with medal, a tie with a length of matching ribbon (I would have said medal ribbon but probably related to regimental colours rather than a medal), an ivory letter opener, slope key, typed brief service record and finally a pair of mounted wild boar tusks. Size of slope is 15 inches long, 9 inches wide, 6 inches depth. Campaign slope all original and good condition except for leather skiver cracked and split at folds. Ivory letter opener tip damaged.

The ivory letter opener (pre CITES) is engraved CCP on one side and on the other side is handwritten in ink with details of his unit and various postings/detachments from 1876 including Stubbington, Sandhurst, Bangalore, Dalhousie, Mamund , Bara Valley, Kyber and Ferozepur amongst others. The wild boar tusks are an engraved silver mounted pig sticking trophy with inscription : Speared 19th May /95, Ch. C B P "Rufus". Pig sticking was highly popular with British Officers in India at the time of Pearsons postings. Pearson was the pig sticker who accounted for the pig as the award of its tusks as his initials on the mount proves. Whether the nickname of Rufus was him or the pig is not known! 

Charles Coffin Pearson was born on 28 March 1867, son of Lieutenant General Sir Charles Knight Pearson KCMG CB, one of the more successful British Generals in the Zulu Wars who was also present at the Siege of Sevastopol and was mentioned in despatches no less than 11 times. After graduating at Sandhurst, Charles Coffin Pearson was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 52nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry on 14 September 1887 with subsequent promotions of Lieutenant 2 June 1891, Captain 5 June 1897, Major 10 July 1907. 

He served in the 1897-98 Mohmand Campaign and the Tirah Expeditionary Force for which he was awarded the campaign medal and 2 clasps. The 52nd were in the 2nd Brigade along with the 9th Gurkha Rifles in the Mamund Valley supporting a small force of cavalry including a certain 2nd Lt Winston Churchill who wrote his first non fiction book on the campaign in 1898, The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War. Pearson retired on 14 September 1907 but re-joined for the Great War in 1914 as Adjutant for the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. 

So many of these military slopes have disappeared out of the direct family of the owner over the years. However, we should be grateful for these surviving items coming onto the market with a story to tell.