LONDON.- Thomas Del Mar (in association with Sotheby’s) Antique Arms, Armour and Militaria auction on the 24th June 2015, will comprise the Property of a European Prince, The Morton and Angela Stern Collection, New York, Final Part, and Property to be sold by the Order of the Trustees of the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection.

Highlights from the property of a European prince include a German latten and iron war hammer, late 15th/early 16th century. A closely related example is preserved in the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zurich. Other examples are illustrated in Albrecht Dürer's woodcuts of the period such as his Christ before Herod dated 1509, and two versions of the Passion of Christ dated 1504 and 1510 respectively. The estimate is £5000 - £8000.

Also from this group is a German close helmet for tourney use, circa 1600, estimate: £12,000 - £18,000.

A fine pair of 20 bore North German flintlock holster pistols formed entirely of steel, circa 1680– 90, perhaps by a member of the Cloeter family of Manheim and Grevenbroich are also from the same property of European Prince. This pair of pistols is related to the well-known group of firearms stocked entirely in steel, many of which are signed Cloeter. Other examples are preserved in the Tøjhusmuseet Copenhagen, the Royal Armoury Stockholm and another pair, formerly in the Hanoverian Royal Collections, was sold Sotheby's 5 - 15 October 2005, lot 759. The mark on the present pistols is also found on other firearms stocked in this manner with Suhl marks, as recorded in Støckel. Estimate: £6000/8000.

Included in this group is a rare German miniature artillery battery of eight cannon, late 18th century, estimate: £4000 - £6000. In addition, twenty iron cannon balls for a ‘large minion’, 17th/18th century will be for sale, also from this group. Each is approximately 3inches in diameter, arranged as a pyramid, on a modern stand. The Tower of London Inventories for 1691 and 1706 list 3inch diameter shot for a Large Minion. The estimate is £100/150.

A pair of 20 bore South German flintlock rifled sporting carbines by Michael Bayer in Wirzburg, circa 1730, also hail from the collection of a European Prince. (Pictured, left). Michael Bayer is recorded in Wurzburg circa 1720. Estimate: £2500-£3500.

One of a number of armours will be in the auction from the John Woodman Higgins Armory, including his late 16th century composite North Italian capa-pied field armour with etched decoration. It has also been exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan and Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts. It carries an estimate of £16,000 - £20,000.

The helmet resembles both in form and decoration, one forming part of an armour in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (formerly the collection of C. O. von Kienbusch collection), made for William Herbert, First Earl of Pembroke, and described in the inventory taken of his armoury at Wilton House, Wiltshire, in 1558, as 'a millayne dimilance graven and gilt wth the furniture' (J. F. Hayward, 'The Armoury of the first Earl of Pembroke', The Connoisseur, April 1960).