Be hard-headed to get what you want

MIRACULIS-blinking-mirabile, my run of auction failure has finally ended, although, perhaps inevitably, I had to ‘go high’ to bring home my trophy. As regular readers now know, specialist arms and armour auctions (my passion) mainly happen but twice a year: early summer and pre-Christmas. Yes, ancient arms and armour can pop up at regional salerooms, but not often, and outside these specialist auctions, I rarely see anything I really want. Which, in turn, meant that if I didn’t buy something this summer, I was unlikely to get another chance until just before Christmas: a long time to wait.

Bonhams had a catalogue full of arms and armour goodies on 25 May; loads of wonderful, but later swords and guns; nothing – at least in my price range – that I wanted for my walls. I did consider a Japanese mempo, one of those ‘human’, bottom-half-of-the-face defences, this one complete with nose and moustache. Great things, and highly decorative. What’s more,