This is super cool.
It's like an armoury to go. This box, and a box of ammunition, and you're ready for conflict.
Chest of Arms and its contents, 1828-30.
The 19th century chest of arms is one of the most remarkable objects to come into the UK’s National Collection of Arms & Amour in recent times.
Containing 12 of the same types of swords, scabbards, musketoons, bayonets and pistols, this 19th century chest of arms has benefitted from excellent research by my predecessors who acquired the chest for the museum in 1996.
They revealed the Birmingham maker, a very precise date range for its creation and the probable purpose of the chest alongside interesting observations about the weapon types within.
So as individual objects the contents are intriguing, especially to someone like me who is fascinated with edged weapons, as the swords are not of any positively identified British military pattern.
But taken as a whole, the wider history the chest really comes into its own. It was probably commissioned by a mill owner to equip their private ‘militia’ during a turbulent period when some land and business owners felt the need to defend their property against protesters or rioters.
Such a chest could literally be wheeled out and from it 12 ‘militia’ heavily armed to potentially defend their employer’s interests.
However, it was seldom, if ever, used as the weapons are in an excellent state of preservation, with the original polish on the blades, buff leather sword-knots, lacquer on the scabbards and browning on the barrels all surviving in remarkable condition.
