Arms collecting and nostalgia

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Norman McCormick

Hi Jim,
Some more 1950's childrens t.v. series on British screens that gave me the arms and armour bug. Interestingly in the series William Tell I noticed that some of the 'Swiss' daggers used are actually Axis dress daggers some of which were of course designed on real historical types. In the fifties of course loads of bringbacks from WW2 so no surprise some ended up in wardrobe departments. Some of the actors went on to do bigger things notably Roger Moore and Robert Shaw.
My Regards,
Norman.

Excellent examples Norman!!! It is true many weapons brought back from WWII ended up in wardrobe departments of movie studios. In the 'MISC' forum is the thread on the numbers of actual antique arms used in films.
Those Swiss 'Holbein' daggers (for Hans Holbein who fashioned macabre decoration on the scabbard in 1521) were well known as prestigious dress daggers there until early 17th c. How they ended up as 'German axis' regalia is hard to explain, but it certainly tarnished their character IMO.

The William Tell legend was really popular back in the 50s but the topic seems to have waned later. I doubt if any young people these days would have any idea who William Tell was. However the other films with buccaneers remain known, but collectively as 'pirate' films.