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A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
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Lot 182

A Rare French 'Toiras' Pikeman's Back-Plate
Circa 1625

Antique Arms & Armour
25 July 2007, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,080 inc. premium

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A Rare French 'Toiras' Pikeman's Back-Plate
Circa 1625

Of steel, shaped to the back and base of the neck, and with an out-turned flange along the bottom, the main edges with plain bold turns bordered by incised double lines, incised with the name 'Toiras' centrally above the bottom flange, and retaining the rear ends of the leather shoulder-straps, each covered with a riveted steel plate bordered by incised double lines
43 cm. high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Tower Of London Armouries

The inscription on this back-plate refers to Jean de Saint-Bonnet, maréchal de Toiras (1585-1636), a distinguished French general in the service of Louis XIII, and later of the Duke of Savoy. In 1623 he was made governor of Fort Louis, in the port of La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast, then a Huguenot (protestant) centre. As the result of a Huguenot rising in 1625, the King went to war with them, and in 1627 his forces besieged La Rochelle. The rebels were supported by Charles I of England, who sent a relief force under the command of the Duke of Buckingham, which landed and occupied the nearby island of Ré. It was eventually heavily defeated by the French royal forces, as was another expedition sent in 1628. Toiras played a prominent part in the defeat of the rebels, and the pieces under discussion, which, according to C.J. ffoulkes were captured 'from a French ship', must have been intended for his troops

The Tower Armouries' Remains (inventories) for 1676 and 1688 contain the following entries relating to the Toiras pieces:
1676
'Armes of the Toryas Provision Backes 236
Brestes 229'

1688
'Armr of Toiras Provon 339 Backs at 8s a pce, 239 Breasts at 8sa pce.'

The number had been reduced to two hundred and thirteen backs and breasts by the time ffoulkes published his inventory of the Tower Armouries in 1916 (Nos. III. 184-396). A number of these, of which this back-plate is presumably one were sold through Sotheby's in the 1960s

See C.J. ffoulkes, Inventory and Survey of the Armouries of the Tower of London, 2 vols. 1916, I, p. 153; and A.R. Dufty & W. Reid, European Armour in the Tower of London, 1968, p. 9 & pl. CXX

Additional information

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A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
FOUR REPRODUCTION CARVED POWDER HORNS/FLASKS.late 20th century.
THREE CARVED COCONUT ITEMS.18th/19th century.
A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.
THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.