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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.
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Lot 151

A Composite Pikeman's Half-Armour With Rare French 'Toiras' Breast-Plate
Mid-17th Century

Fine Antique Arms & Armour Including An Important Group Of British Firearms
23 September 2020, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,912.50 inc. premium

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A Composite Pikeman's Half-Armour With Rare French 'Toiras' Breast-Plate
Mid-17th Century

Of iron, comprising a pot helmet (some pitting and minor damage) with two-piece skull with low turned comb, the base of the skull encircled by dome-headed lining rivets, and downturned brim with turned border, breast-plate (small internal riveted repairs) with medial ridge stamped with the name 'TOIRAS' towards the base, neck, arms and shaped skirt (adapted and with later riveted repair) all with plain turns bordered by incised double lines, rectangular tassets (pitted) each embossed with simulated lames and with domed brass-headed lining rivets, and secured by later hook catches on later leather straps reinforced with riveted brass plates

Footnotes

The inscription on the breast-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 this 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 the 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 breast-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, l, p. 153; and A.R. Dufty & W. Reid, European Armour in the Tower of London, 1969, 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.