Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Use of Actual Vintage Arms as Props in Early Films

Jerseyman · 6th February 2023, 10:53 PM

The first time I worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company the armourer brought down a load of 'cutlasses' for me to choose from. I was completely astonished to realise that instead of being theatrical weapons around half of them were cut down French military sabres with St. Etienne inscriptions from the 1870s on their spines.

One of the older drama schools at which I have worked has a handful of British sabres and basket hilts with badly notched blades. Even a mortuary sword which has been very poorly treated considering its age and value. These of course would have been donated in the early 20C and used for Shakespeare productions at the time, with no knowledge of their intrinsic value or history.

In 19C Britain it was very common for people to donate both exotic weapons and British military weapons for local theatre productions, many of which were later consolidated by the formation of the big props-hire houses which bought up props and costumes from regional theatres. Most of those weapons have since been weeded out by people who knew what they were looking at, and have found there way into private collections.

That said, when it comes to firearms the large weapons-hire companies very often use deactivated weapons. I once worked on a show where the hired firearms were all deac AK47s.

At a London arms fair in the late '90s I was chatting to a dealer who worked for a theatrical armourer in the '60s, who described missing out on an odachi being sold out of stock by the company. He said it was about 2.5 metres long and had been painted entirely gold. It had been bought by the company from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company who had purchased it in the 1880s along with a multitude of other props for the very first production of The Mikado. According to him, the person who beat him to it sent it to Japan to be cleaned and assessed, and apparently it turned out to be a 15C temple sword (? not my area of knowledge) by a famous sword smith, and consequently worth an absolute fortune. Thirty years later he was still kicking himself!

If you're interested in the fighting aspects of the golden age of Hollywood you could check out these books.

Swordsmen of the Screen: from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York
Richards, J (1977)

Cads and Cavaliers: The Film Adventurers
Thomas, T (1973)

Apart from my interest in a broad range of ethnographic weapons I also collect theatrical weaponry. The irony for me is that these pieces are very often mistaken for real antique weapons and consequently command commensurate prices, and trying to persuade dealers otherwise is very much a losing battle!

6th February 2023, 10:53 PM	#24
Jerseyman Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 97	The first time I worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company the armourer brought down a load of 'cutlasses' for me to choose from. I was completely astonished to realise that instead of being theatrical weapons around half of them were cut down French military sabres with St. Etienne inscriptions from the 1870s on their spines. One of the older drama schools at which I have worked has a handful of British sabres and basket hilts with badly notched blades. Even a mortuary sword which has been very poorly treated considering its age and value. These of course would have been donated in the early 20C and used for Shakespeare productions at the time, with no knowledge of their intrinsic value or history. In 19C Britain it was very common for people to donate both exotic weapons and British military weapons for local theatre productions, many of which were later consolidated by the formation of the big props-hire houses which bought up props and costumes from regional theatres. Most of those weapons have since been weeded out by people who knew what they were looking at, and have found there way into private collections. That said, when it comes to firearms the large weapons-hire companies very often use deactivated weapons. I once worked on a show where the hired firearms were all deac AK47s. At a London arms fair in the late '90s I was chatting to a dealer who worked for a theatrical armourer in the '60s, who described missing out on an odachi being sold out of stock by the company. He said it was about 2.5 metres long and had been painted entirely gold. It had been bought by the company from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company who had purchased it in the 1880s along with a multitude of other props for the very first production of The Mikado. According to him, the person who beat him to it sent it to Japan to be cleaned and assessed, and apparently it turned out to be a 15C temple sword (? not my area of knowledge) by a famous sword smith, and consequently worth an absolute fortune. Thirty years later he was still kicking himself! If you're interested in the fighting aspects of the golden age of Hollywood you could check out these books. Swordsmen of the Screen: from Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York Richards, J (1977) Cads and Cavaliers: The Film Adventurers Thomas, T (1973) Apart from my interest in a broad range of ethnographic weapons I also collect theatrical weaponry. The irony for me is that these pieces are very often mistaken for real antique weapons and consequently command commensurate prices, and trying to persuade dealers otherwise is very much a losing battle!