Sharpe's auction

Fans of swashbuckling TV classic Sharpe are expected to turn out in force when a Shropshire man auctions off his cache of weapons used as props in the hit show.

Ian Smith, 43, a collector and antique toy dealer from Market Drayton, acquired the weapons four years ago. Now he is preparing to sell them to the highest bidder at auctioneers Peter Wilson in Nantwich.

The props - two Brown Bess muskets complete with bayonets, an East India pattern pistol and two swords, one for a British infantryman, the other a curved Indian Tulwar, will go under the hammer on April 20 and 21.

Many of the props were seen on-screen, but Mr Smith believes they were not handled by actor Sean Bean, who played the title role of British Napoleonic Wars hero Richard Sharpe in the ITV series.

Aficionados will be able to bid for and buy the muskets used in the filming of Sharpe's Challenge, the penultimate episode shot in India in 2006.

The props were all made by an Indian company which claims to be the country's oldest manufacturer of firearms and edged weapons and once armourers of royal Mewar army, a powerful kingdom in Rajasthan.

Founded in 1815 in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the so-called Curious House arms manufacturers and ammunition dealers today makes and exports both working and non-firing replicas.

According to Mr Smith, Curious House was commissioned to make the weapons for the Sharpe episodes, which were rented by the production company Celtic Films/Picture Palace Films which were making the dramas for ITV.

When filming was finished, the weapons were surplus to requirements and sold on by Curious House for export.

Mr Smith answered an advertisement in the trade press and since then, the weapons have been on display in his home.

He said: "In the films, Sharpe uses a real Baker musket, so it would be wrong to claim these replicas were handled by him, but they were definitely screen-used."

Call the auctioneers on (01270) 623878.

By Tom Johannsen