A collection of 130 items, including gun-related accessories, edged weapons, flintlock and percussion long arms and pistols, will be auctioned later this month.
Rare weapons from the Mark and Peter Dineley Collections will be offered at Bonhams Antique Arms and Armour Sale in London on 27 November.
Mark Dineley and his son Peter owned and ran Bapty & Co., a firm specialising in supplying arms and armour to the film industry, contributing to titles such as A Bridge Too Far, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Saving Private Ryan.
The collection is made up of 130 items, and includes works of art as well as the weaponry-related lots.
A pair of gold-inlaid double-barrelled pistols (pictured, top), made for the Nawab of Oudh, are estimated to reach £35,000-45,000. The silver-mounted pistols were made in 1793 by John Manton, brother of Joseph Manton, who is considered one of the founders of the English gun trade.
‘The Nawab had succeeded his father in 1775 at the age of 26, and inherited an immense fortune over which he fought bitterly with his mother and grandmother,’ said a spokesman for Bonhams. ‘He was famed for his generosity to the poor, a prodigious capacity for alcohol and, importantly, for making Lucknow one of the architectural marvels of India.’
Bonhams has previously sold a pair of over-and-under pistols, by Joseph Manton, made for the Maharaja of Tanjor in 1825, and a cased pair of flintlock duelling pistols also by Joseph, made for Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Thornton in 1796.
Credit: Carl Persson
A late fifteenth century cinquedea (pictured, above), an Italian short-sword or dagger, in its original scabbard is also on offer and is predicted to sell for £30,000-40,000.
‘There are examples of similar cinquedeas in the Wallace Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Musée de l’Armée in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,’ added the Bonhams spokesman. ‘None of these swords, however, retain their original scabbard.
‘The cinquedea from the Dineley collection is thought to be one of only two with originals scabbards known to exist. The other is in the Royal Armouries in Leeds, and it is believed that the two scabbards came from the same workshop.’
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