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A family business, BLUNDERBUSS ANTIQUES
opened its doors at our Central London address in 1968. The proprietor, the
late Tom Greenaway (a collector since he was a boy), had already been dealing
in antique arms and armour since 1960, working from an extensive stall layout
in the Portobello Road. His two sons, Phil and Chris joined the business in
1970 and 1971. In this time we have seen the collecting of arms, armour and
militaria change in many ways, from early morning street market dealing, in our
shop face to face with the customer, to the current trend of selling by mail
order and on the Internet.
Sadly, Tom Greenaway passed away in late
2001, a great loss to both us and the militaria trade in general, however his
ideals and his zest for the militaria business carry on through Phil and Chris.
When our shop opened 40 years ago, we dealt
solely in antique arms and armour with virtually no dealings in WW1 and WW2
items - in fact, at that time, apart from German WW2 militaria there was
virtually no interest in collecting WW1 & WW2 militaria in general.
Gradually we adapted to selling all sorts of arms and militaria and now our
stock consists of one of the widest ranges of items in the U.K. We don't claim
to be the biggest or the best, but we have been around for over 40 years and so
we must have been doing something right for all of this time.
Our stock consists of an extensive range of
items including flintlock pistols and long guns, percussion pistols and
revolvers, swords, sidearms, daggers and dirks from the 16th century to WW1 and
a selection of British Victorian head dress .We stock bayonets of all periods,
general WW1 and WW2 militaria of the main combatant nations, including combat
equipment, clothing, personal kit, paperwork, insignia, helmets, knives,
respirators, caps and boots, aviation and naval items! We don't stock much in
post WW2 and modern militaria, unless it falls into more general
categories.
We have operated an efficient and reliable
mail order service for around 35 years, originally dealing through a printed
catalogue which is still available to our worldwide customers, both established
and new, who do not have access to the Internet. This web site is based on our
currently available stock of WW1 & WW2 militaria and Antique weapons and
militaria items. The design of this new website, which includes many features
unavailable on other sites, allows us update it more frequently and offer an
even better service to ALL of our customers, old and new, wherever they may be.
In January 2009 we closed our shop in Central
London, and have changed our business to being predominantly Mail Order, with
plans to visit selected Arms & Militaria fairs to maintain "face to face"
contact with our many clients.
Phil & Chris Greenaway |