Ancient Artifacts & Other Curios

April 17, 2022 12:00 PM AEST
Timed Auction

208 Lots

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Smalls Auctions

Location: Paddington, Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 (0)2 9357 5492

Payment

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Accepted Forms of Payment: American Express, COD (cash on delivery), MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Other, Paypal, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer

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AUSTRALIA :

Purchases within Australia will be charged a MINIMUM SHIPPING FEE of $10.00 and will be sent by Registered Post.

Additional insurance is optional at the buyer's expense.

Larger lots may incur an additional charge.

OVERSEAS :

Overseas purchases will be charged a MINIMUM SHIPPING FEE of $35.00 and will be sent by standard International Post.

Additional insurance is optional at the buyer's expense

Larger lots may incur an additional charge.

If we are unsure of the bona fides of a successful bidder we may request identification such as a Passport Photo or Drivers's Licence that matches the Credit Card details registered with Invaluable before we despatch an item.

Both Australian and International packages are traceable in transit and may require a signature on delivery.

Welcome to Smalls Auctions Sale 166. As the Russian Army retreats the World is looking on in horror at the devastation wreaked on the Ukraine. The scarred and gutted buildings and the bodies of the innocents are testament to a brutal aggressor who sees strength in the primitive ways of rape and pillage and weakness in the Geneva Conventions of Warfare which were put in place post WWII to protect civilian lives. But the hidden Russian casualties and burnt-out tanks left strewn in the battlefields is evidence of strong resistance to the aggressors and the steep price they too have paid for their inhumanity, even if the general Russian population are not allowed to know it. Let’s face it, no war is without consequence for a besieged civilian population but, on the other side, do young teenage conscripts really want to lay down their lives to satisfy the warped agenda of a delusional megalomaniac sitting safely alone at a long table in the Kremlin far away from the whizzing bullets and missiles. Putin writes his own history and there is no place for failure there, so it’s highly unlikely that we will ever see him don the hard hat to emulate Churchill who in WWI resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty to fight as a Battalion Commander in the trenches at Ypres after he was singled out for stuffing up the Gallipoli Campaign. History is often kind to the despots and particularly those who fought to build an Empire - think of the ‘good camp’ of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. The peoples they decimated during their campaigns have now been transmuted into numbers on the pages of history separated from all the individual souls lost. Today, these numbers would be coldly labelled ‘collateral damage’ and the victims oft forgotten in the next news cycle. In the first televised War, the Americans aimed to rid Vietnam of the communists with a carpet-bombing campaign and its failings were broadcast for all the World to see. In the Ukraine Putin’s excuse for war was to denazify a hostile neighboring Government but instead he delivered to the internet, and a worldwide audience, images of unspeakable Russian atrocities the likes of which cannot credibly be dismissed as ‘fake news.’ This is not a staid account of a war hidden away in some dusty tome on a library bookshelf but real-time crosses to a ‘blitzkrieg’ in all its ugliness which can be revisited again and again online thus searing these chilling images into the consciousness. Putin’s real agenda of course was to annex unwilling bordering countries in a delusional attempt to rebuild the Russian Empire but, facing unexpected resistance, he let loose the ‘dogs of war’ laying waste to a country he couldn’t conquer. His criminal folly is almost certain to have him forever keeping company in ‘the bad camp’ with the likes of Adolph Hitler, the ultimate Nazi. In our sale we have included an array of Ancient Weaponry likely to have been used in pitched hand-to-hand combat. These items are mostly recovered from battlefields where they have laid for millennia along with the spirits of the fallen. It’s also possible that they too could have taken a life and, when you look at them that way and not just as an ancient artefact, they represent a gruesome history. It’s fair to say they are not for everyone, but they do reflect a time where you had to be courageous enough to wield a weapon and confront your enemy face-to-face in mortal combat and not just press a button to launch a lethal missile from a remote location. Can there be chivalry in warfare? I think not, but I guess this is about as close as it gets. Smalls Auctions
Buyer's Premium
$0-99: 20.0%
$100-499: 20.0%
$500-999: 20.0%
$1,000-4,999: 20.0%
$5,000+: 20.0%
Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
A$0 A$249 A$5
A$250 A$999 A$10
A$1,000 A$4,999 A$25
A$5,000 A$9,999 A$50
A$10,000 + A$100

Conditions of Sale

VAT and taxes: The Buyer's Premium is inclusive of the Australian G(oods) & S(ervices T(ax) incurred by our service.

Shipping Terms: AUSTRALIA :

Purchases within Australia will be charged a MINIMUM SHIPPING FEE of $10.00 and will be sent by Registered Post.

Additional insurance is optional at the buyer's expense.

Larger lots may incur an additional charge.

OVERSEAS :

Overseas purchases will be charged a MINIMUM SHIPPING FEE of $35.00 and will be sent by standard International Post.

Additional insurance is optional at the buyer's expense

Larger lots may incur an additional charge.

If we are unsure of the bona fides of a successful bidder we may request identification such as a Passport Photo or Drivers's Licence that matches the Credit Card details registered with Invaluable before we despatch an item.

Both Australian and International packages are traceable in transit and may require a signature on delivery.

Buyers Premium: All purchases are subject to an all inclusive 20.0 % Buyer's Premium on the hammer price.

Tax Details: Taxes, Duties and Customs Charges that apply in the country of delivery are the express responsibility of the buyer.

Please notify us if you require a specific description on the outside of the package for customs purposes.