Valentino's Collection of Oriental Arms
I have the auction catalogue of the sale of Valentinos estate after his death in the mid 1920s. His collection of arms consisted of a couple of hundred lots (from memory, I dont have it in front of me). Many of these were Oriental, as he had a personal passion of Orientalism (hence the full size oil painting of himself in costume). Unfortunately, only a few were photographed in the catalogue. I have a few more images, which I will scan in later. His house was called 'Falcons Lair' and it was here that he housed his collection. Images are poor unfortunately, but am sure many of his pieces found their way onto the open market, with all provenance now lost.
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