The collection of arms and armour at the wallace collection is widely recognised as being one of the largest and most important in the uk consisting of around 2 500 objects it represents both european and oriental arms and armour the european part of the collection was acquired primarily by sir richard wallace mainly in 1871 from the collections of sir samuel rush meyrick founding father of the serious study of arms and armour in britain and that of the comte de nieuwerkerke director of