At Frieze Masters, dealer Peter Finer presents a stand filled with historical arms and armour, including a gilded horse-and-rider suite priced at £1.8 million, an Italian Renaissance sword with a Medusa hilt, and a late 16th-century crossbow. Prices range from £6,500 to seven figures. Finer, whose dealership was founded in 1967, is the sole specialist in this category at the fair, with clients ranging from major museums to niche collectors, such as a Viking sword enthusiast. Other scattered examples include a silver-gilt Shield of Achilles at Koopman Rare Art and Bronze Age spearheads at Rupert Wace.
This matters because the presence of arms and armour at a leading contemporary art fair like Frieze Masters highlights the enduring crossover between historical artifacts and fine art, appealing to collectors who value craftsmanship, history, and aesthetic form. The article underscores the niche but resilient market for such objects, the challenges of a shrinking dealer ecosystem, and the efforts to attract younger collectors through diversification into ancient and Islamic material.