yourletters
Let us know what you think of your favourite militaria magazine or ask other readers a question
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Post: Letters Page, The Armourer, Warners Group Publications, West Street, Bourne, Lincs. PE10 9PH Email: armourer@warnersgroup.co.uk
AIR PISTOLS AND RIFLES
I would like to add my support to Mr Bettison’s request in the February issue of The Armourer, for an article on pre-WWII air pistols and rifles. As the older ones of these are getting on for 100 years in age they are approaching antique status and well worth collecting. It would be very useful to have some idea of current prices as well as what manufacturers are common and which models are rare.
Graham Jones, by email
Ed says: The good news is that our resident firearms expert, John Walter has been commissioned to tackle this, starting off with the air guns of the 1920s and 1930s. If the feedback is positive then I will commission a follow up. Look out for the article in a few months time.
BEAUTIFUL DAGGERS
I would just like to say that agree with Graham Priest’s kind response to my letter about bayonets, published in The
Armourer. Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder as regards to appearance of bayonet, that is why people collect them.
Also, if you have a militaria collection, you are bound to collect bayonets to include in your display, especially if you have some deactivated firearms
as well. Well, I think that is the case anyway.
Some militaria collectors also include items of trench art in their display, which are mainly shell cases, sometimes with regimental badges soldered to the surface. Even though these projectiles, or shell heads, were designed to blow soldiers to pieces or cause horrific injuries people still polish the shell cases brightly and put them on their mantelpiece or bookshelf, as I do. So, once again, like bayonets, these items are beautiful in the eye of the beholder.
I must say I enjoyed Mr Priest’s A to Z of Bayonets, in the Classic Arms and Militaria magazine, before it merged with The Armourer in April 2017. Sadly I missed some issues before I subscribed, but there have been a lot of articles on bayonets since then.
John Bettison,
Pembroke Dock, Dyfed
Ed says: There’s no getting away from the fact that weapons, blades and munitions are designed to kill or disable enemy soldiers but taken out of that role can possess an attractive aesthetic from their form. Trench art though, is different. Here you have a leftover from war that has been deliberately repurposed to be attractive and suitable for display.