French WWII 'Donkey Ears' Trench Periscope

Solid frame, double trigger 54 bore revolver with 15cm (6") barrel, five-shot cylinder bearing London proof marks, hinged left side loading arm screwed to frame with unclear serial number to right frame and marked 'TRANTER' to cocking trigger; foliate engraved frame and chequered wood grip; action working. 975 grams, 29 cm



Acquired from Michael J Noble Ltd, 2015. The Kusmirek Collection, UK. Accompanied by a copy of the Noble invoice.

Sold as an exempt item under Section 58 (2) of the Firearms Act, 1968, to be held as a curiosity or ornament. No license required but buyer must be over 18 years of age. Overseas bidders should note that, due to UK regulations governing export of all firearms, overseas buyers will need to make arrangements for shipping this lot out of the UK directly, by air freight, with a specialist company or agent.

Piriform in shape with raised lugs to the upper body with stamped concentric roundels between. 588 grams, 15.3 cm



Family collection, acquired 1980-2015. Ex property of a North London gentleman. Accompanied by an academic paper by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato, dated 15 July 2019 and titled 'Eastern Roman Empire - Greek Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade (μεσαίον kακάβιον) 9th-11th century AD'.

Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. Such were the γανωτα, vessels (sometimes also of bronze) used for Greek fire. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form.

Comprising a double-edged tapering blade showing shallow fullers and wide cutting edges; boat-shaped lower guard with inlaid vertical copper bands; the upper guard decorated in similar fashion; five-lobed pommel with deep grooves between the lobes, each lobe inlaid with copper bands. 1.05 kg, 90 cm



Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11592-199910.

It is the decoration and the structure of the sword that suggest classifying it as a type H of Petersen, rather than type R which usually presents a five-lobed pommel. The copper markings are artistically consistent with archaeological examples of decorative work of Viking swords, notably with the one in Suomen Kansallismuseo, Helsinki, published by Peirce (2002, pp.6off.). The decoration, which here takes the form of vertical copper lines, is striped as on the Helsinki specimen.