WWII Entrenching Spade

Comprising three weapons: a 'ronca contadina' (peasant scythed staff weapon, known as forest bill) made of trunco-conical tubular gorbia with tapering iron shaft, inclined to the right with respect to the axis of the weapon, ending in a bill; an alabarda-sergentina, iron blade halberd with central rib, two axe-heads, one convex one concave; an alghiero, guisarme with tapering pointed iron shaft of rectangular section, furnished with a side-bill; all three mounted upon wooden velvet-covered shafts. 6.3 kg total, 2.26-2.34 m



Ex Christie's, Holland, circa 2010. East Anglian private collection.

Certainly the most interesting of the three weapons is the peasant roncone. The hooked part of the weapon could be used to hook or cut things, but also for severing a horse's hocks causing both horse and rider to fall.

Featuring a wedge-shaped blade and a lobed handle; the hilt fitted with an iron plate bending down to form points on each side of the blade, pommel with a discoid brass plate decorated with an incised flower motif. 307 grams, 46 cm



Acquired 1960s-1990s. Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.

The term 'ballock dagger' was used in medieval times to describe a dagger with a grip bearing a considerable resemblance to a phallic symbol. It was also called 'kidney dagger' during the Victorian times. The constant characteristic is the presence of two roundish and symmetrical bulbs at the guard, with the grip itself emerging upward between them and flaring slightly towards the top, sometimes being surmounted by a cap.

Of Dutch lobster-tailed pot type, the neck-guard composed of four articulated sections; wide brim with a movable nasal-guard; tongue-shaped cheekpieces with ventilation rosettes and five bosses around the raised perimeter; the cheek-pieces re-attached. 1.54 kg, 26 cm



with Peter Bunting Antiques. The Kusmirek Collection, UK. Accompanied by a copy of Peter Bunting invoice.

The capeline or taschetto (capeline in English, derived from the word that in French indicates the hat) was a particular type of helmet widespread in Western Europe in the 17th century. It was a variant of the szyszak helmet used by the cavalry forces of the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy, as well as by the winged hussars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the post-Renaissance era. The helmet was mainly used by armoured cavalrymen in various European armies of the 17th century, and it was one of the typical helmets of the Thirty Years' War.