Philippe Missillier, An Expert and Dealer’s Historic Collection of Arms and Medals

Gathered together with consuming passion by the expert and dealer, this collection of weapons and medals, embracing all the world’s eras and cultures, is unique. Its dispersal is destined to be a landmark event.

One of the first striking features of the catalog devoted to this vast collection is the number of experts and specialists (ten in all!) involved in what at first glance appears to be a single specialty: weapons. This may seem like a small detail, but it speaks volumes about the richness and variety of the pieces on offer, from all five continents, across all eras, and with first-rate historical references. As a result, announcing this auction as the most important devoted to an antique arms collection at Drouot in thirty years is no mere affectation. Philippe Missillier, who died in 2022, left his mark on the history of this specialty, to which he devoted his entire life as a dealer and expert. A man of great intellect and impressive open-mindedness, where most arms collectors concentrate on a single era or type of weapon, he assembled an almost encyclopedic and, in many respects, museum-quality collection. These weapons, rarely shown or only to a small circle of friends and insiders, are bound to provoke auction battles commensurate with their rarity and desirability. For beyond all their qualities, they tell a story with a capital S.

First-Class Pieces

For many years, Philippe Missillier assisted Alexandre Giquello with his arms sales. Giquello remembers how explicitly he made his wishes known: “When he wanted an object, he would declare ‘this is mine’ before the sale. Royal… even imperial! So, first things first: a flintlock pommel pistol that belonged to Louis XIV, as attested by an entry in the inventory of the Royal Arms under number 372 from 1717. This firearm of remarkable technical ingenuity is signed by Giovanni Valetti and Lazarino Cominazzo, Brescian gunsmiths active between 1660 and 1670. It may have been a diplomatic gift, and is now being offered at €180,000 to €200,000. As for the ceremonial sword, made in Poland around 1770-1775, it is one of three made for its last king, Stanislas II Auguste Poniatowski—he abdicated in 1795 and the kingdom was divided between neighboring powers. The ceremonial weapon (€500,000/700,000), in gold and enriched with diamonds, is certainly the work of goldsmith Joachim Friedrich Jacobson, active in Warsaw from 1750 to 1776. The path to Napoleon I is clear. First to strike is the gold sabre with his numeral, commissioned by the Austrian court in 1810 and presented on the occasion of his marriage to Marie-Louise, expected to fetch between €200,000 and €300,000. With the pair of pistols by the arquebusier (gunsmith) Jean Lepage, delivered for his personal use on January 2, 1812 (€40,000/80,000)­—and presumably accompanying him during the Russian campaign—history comes alive! Great men of war were rewarded for their exploits. It’s no surprise, then, to find phaleristics (orders, medals and awards) in this set, including the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Union awarded by King Louis of Holland to General Rampon on August 16, 1809, made in Paris in the workshops of the renowned Martin-Guillaume Biennais (€60,000/80,000). And then comes a piece whose intimate character is particularly touching. The little King of Rome was just 2 years old when his father presented him with a gold Legion of Honor insignia adorned with diamonds and enamel. To make it, the Emperor called on François-Régnault Nitot, his personal jeweler. €150,000/200,000 will be needed to capture this jewel.

From the Crusades to the Hundred Years’ War

A few Neolithic axes and a large finned spearhead from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1150-930 BCE – €5,500/6,500) take us back to the prehistoric period, while the medieval era is illustrated by two armorial dagger pommels decorated with champlevé enamel, whose small size—3.5 cm/1.37 in diameter—and low estimate in relation to the collection (between €1,500 and €2,500 each) say nothing about how many centuries they have been preserved. Dating from the late 12th or early 13th century, they are closely related to a group associated with the Crusades, examples of which can be found at the Musée de Cluny and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This is the history of battlefields that built the modern world we live in! Philippe Missillier had a particular affinity for the Late Middle Ages. 1453 is a date that speaks to us all. The year of the fall of Constantinople and the end of the Eastern Roman Empire was also the year of the Battle of Castillon on July 18, a particularly famous episode in the Hundred Years’ War, when the French army emerged victorious. “In the early 1970s, probably in 1974, unknown individuals made the fortuitous discovery, at a ford in the Dordogne, of 80 medieval swords, crammed into two chests aboard a barge that had sunk to the bottom of the river. By virtue of the area in which they were found and their dating, these swords appear to be linked to the famous Hundred Years’ War battle, and were certainly part of the booty recovered from the English troops,” explains specialist Marina Viallon. Philippe Missillier was able to acquire three of them, each estimated at between €25,000 and €35,000.

The Horse and the Late Middle Ages in Majesty

This summer, the Château de Versailles hosted the equestrian events of the Olympic Games, held in its gardens, with a magnificent exhibition devoted to the horse. A number of rare pieces were on display. While our collector’s pieces were not featured, they would have had their rightful place in the exhibition. What would a knight be without his mount? It’s easy to understand why the best craftsmen were called upon to make protection for horses. This is true for the one large iron chamfer (l. 48 cm/18.89 in), stamped in Northern Italy around 1460-1470 (€17,000/25,000), and for the bridle bit (h. 21 cm/8.26 in) with the coat of arms of the Lord of Eksaarde, cast in France or Flanders in the early 14th century. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, gilded bronze bits with enamel decoration were luxury items reserved for ceremonial riding, due to the relative fragility of their material compared to those made of iron. Estimates climb between €55,000 and €75,000, and taking us right into the period of the Duchy of Burgundy, and the rivalry between these powerful lords and the still-fragile Kings of France, seeking to consolidate their power. The battlefield was their regular meeting place. An infantryman’s targe­—a light, sturdy shield—in slightly convex wood covered with rawhide and lined on the front with a canvas painted white with the large red cross of St. Andrew (h. 75 cm/29.52 in), bearing the emblem of Charles the Bold, tells a part of the story. Estimated at between €25,000 and €35,000, it probably comes from the spoils of the Battle of Grandson on March 2, 1476, won by Louis XI’s Swiss allies against the Duke’s troops, who were forced to retreat after being caught in a vice-like grip.

What makes this example particularly exceptional, apart from its excellent state of preservation, is the presence of the two bovine heads engraved on the top.

Foot soldiers and horsemen are also highlighted by their warrior attributes and those rewarding their bravery. The Milanese rondache (a circular shield) c. 1560-1565, in single piece of repoussé iron, one of a series of cladding pieces from a workshop whose master is known only by his initials: MP. This may be Matteo Piatti, whose shield, also decorated with the mythological scene of the Judgment of Paris­—based on Raphael‘s composition widely disseminated in a print—is kept at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. Prices range from €30,000 to €45,000. Rondaches were used in close combat as a means of protection and intimidation. Was this model sufficient in the face of the violence of a mass of weapons? A winged iron model (l. 63 cm/24.8 in, €12,000/20,000), with its silver damascened, oriental-inspired vegetal decoration, also from mid-sixteenth-century Italy, begs the question… Fortunately, the soldier was wearing armor—€58,000 to €78,000 for a German breastplate c.1560-1570, with high-quality engraving that could link it to the work of a Saxon workshop, perhaps more precisely in Brunswick—and a bourguignotte (burgonet), the name behind which hides a highly protective helmet. This one, made in gilded iron with acid-etched plant motifs in southern Germany, probably in Nuremberg around 1560-1570, is a fine example, justifying the €100,000 to €120,000 price tag. Its shape and motif link it to the Zischägge (lobster-tail burgonet) type, based on—and deriving its name from—the Ottoman çiçak. The workshops of Nuremberg and Augsburg specialized in these combat helmets for members of the great families of Central Europe. “In addition to its excellent state of preservation, however, what makes this example particularly exceptional is the presence of the two engraved bovine heads on the top. Normally, Zischägge only feature aniconic decorations, either geometric or vegetal, in the tradition of Islamic weapons”, adds the specialist.

Weapons From Near and Far

Another distinctive feature of this collection is its global reach. Philippe Missillier didn’t limit himself to Europe: he opened his eyes to cultures from all over the world, from Central America, the origins of this a pair of large iron stirrups from the mid-18th century­—these Mexican objects, markers of social status, were banned in 1778 because of the danger they represented to pedestrians—to Japan, via Indonesia—several kris (a Javanese asymmetrical dagger) between €1,500 and €3,000 each. In the vast Oceanian archipelago, he stopped at a U’u war club from the Marquesas Islands, probably from the 18th century, originally in the Pierre Weité Collection. This fighting weapon, emblematic of Polynesian culture was equally an object of prestige. The asking price for this genuine war trophy is €30,000 to €40,000. The Indian Continent fascinated him with its daggers set with precious stones. In the Muslim world, it is said that weapons are man’s jewels. Rarely have these words resonated as much in the West as they do with Philippe Missillier’s weapons.

Iron Dagger in a Velvet Sheath!

In the chaos of medieval hand-to-hand battle, swords no longer made much sense. Knights and foot soldiers drew their daggers to fend off their opponents. Short, with a double-edged steel blade ending in a tapered needle point, these white weapons enabled swift and frighteningly precise strikes. The dagger can be found throughout this collection, from an early model dating back to the Scythian culture of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE (€800/1,000) to examples from the Mughal period, testifying to the prestige of their owner. Along the way, we come across medieval daggers—€35,000/55,000 a cinquedea dagger with acid-decorated steel blade gilded in full by Ercole dei Fedeli, a silversmith active at the court of Ferrara around 1500—and a Renaissance stiletto dagger with fine estoc blade—€6,000/10,000, a left-hand dagger known as “à la taza”, made in Milan around 1650-1675, whose iron frame is fully chased with a vegetal decoration­—all as beautiful as they are terribly effective. Mughal daggers bear witness to the magnificence of the Indian imperial era. Here, the hardened steel blade is curved, but what gives these pieces their majesty is the luxurious materials used for the handles, medallions and chapes: very often nephrite jade inlaid with precious stones in floral arrangements in kundan (a technique for setting extremely pure, fine gold). Two daggers are offered, each priced between €60,000 and €80,000, one of which (reproduced) features an unusual pattern of flowers on the pommel of the hilt, enriched with large leaves and blossoming buds.

KEY FIGURES

487: Number of lots

10: The number of experts and specialists invited to participate in a single specialty—weapons

5: The number of continents explored

€100/200: The lowest estimate for seven brass figurines of First Empire soldiers

€500,000/700,000: Highest estimate for the sword of King Stanislas Poniatowski of Poland

March 6 and 7, 2025: Two landmark days in the history of arms sales

Philippe Missillier Collection

Thursday 06 March 2025 – 14:00 (CET) – Live

Salle 5-6 – Hôtel Drouot – 75009 Paris

Giquello

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