Thomas Del Mar Ltd
In association with Sotheby’s
London
Wednesday 28th June 2006
Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria Auction
The Peter Cottis Collection
I first met Peter Cottis through the Historical Breechloading
Smallarms Association, on whose Council we both served. A
barrister specialising in European Community law, a
bibliophile and a generous man whose enthusiasm for life is
impossible to overlook, and with interests that encompass
not only arms and armour but music, the theatre and French
culture, Peter has been not only willing but uniquely well
qualified to defend the interests of arms collectors and
shooters nationally and internationally. Well-known as a
member of the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain
and the HBSA, Peter has also been an officer of the
quondam National Pistol Association and a member of the
Winans Society, being a strong advocate of the British view
that a proper study and understanding of arms demands
their occasional use, followed by discussion accompanied by
good food and, of course, wine. Peter also helped found
FESAC, the Federation of European Societies of Arms
Collectors, which has done so much and so successfully to
defend the interests of the heritage of arms in the EC, and
served it with distinction for many years as the UK
representative. Peter began to collect Japanese arms and
armour while an undergraduate at Oxford, when he paid £4
for a sword, having been told that it was probably older than
his college (Lincoln, founded in 1427), but Peter’s interest in
arms is not narrow. His collection developed strong themes:
duelling pistols, pocket pistols, officer’s pistols, Irish and
French arms, target rifles and pistols, Flobert arms, rook and
rabbit rifles, double rifles and High Standard pistols. An
active collector, Peter frequently added to his collection for
that best of reasons: the arm had interested and appealed to
him, and he willingly shared his pleasure by lending some of
his finest pieces for museum display. Now that ill-health has
curtailed his ability to work on and build his collection, the
time has come for others to be given the opportunity to
admire, acquire and continue to preserve for the future
remarkable arms from the collection of a remarkable man in
whose debt we all stand.
David Penn