Perfect! And for the uninitiated, what is the Royal Armouries?
The Royal Armouries is the UK’s national museum of arms and armour, with a collection of objects that’s one of the oldest and most extensive of its kind anywhere in the world. So, as you may imagine, we’re involved with a real variety of clients and projects – an aspect of the job which I really enjoy.

I represent the museum across all three of its sites: Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, the White Tower in the Tower of London, and Fort Nelson in Portsmouth. As an institution, we exist to illuminate the past to inform the present. We’re always looking for ways to share our collections and expertise with new audiences, something which I see as central to my role.

And I’m very curious to hear your answer to this… What kind of licensing partners does the Royal Armouries look for?
Through our collection, there’s a long and vibrant history for partners to work with and be inspired by, so the museum lends itself to a whole range of product categories. I’m always excited by collaborations that can include a design and a story element – where products are going to capture both an audience’s eye and their imagination.

At the Royal Armouries, we have many objects which are magnificent examples of craftsmanship and decoration, so there’s a natural synergy with brands where high quality, use of premium materials and considered design are championed in their product ranges and business values.

Oh, I can imagine! You also serve as historical consultants, do you not?
Yes, and the same is true when it comes to partners collaborating with us in that way, not just as a historic collection. With our in-house curatorial expertise, we offer something unique when it comes to the development and design stage. You can look at objects in cases, or pore over photography of them, but you achieve a different level of understanding of historical artefacts when you’re able to see them with your own eyes, hold and feel them…

Creatives who share our commitment to authenticity, technical precision, and storytelling will always be of particular interest. Ultimately, we love working with partners who want to support bringing our collection to life in extraordinary ways, in whatever form that may take.

Great answer. Thank you. Tell me how a couple of partnerships have come about…
We recently collaborated with Elliot Brown, an award-winning British watchmaker, to create a special edition of their Arne range, which is a modern interpretation of the historical field watches from World War II. Given the link of these watches to that history, we looked in the collection for objects from that era and found what we felt to be a perfect complement: the first BREN gun ever made.

Wow! I’ll be sure to put a picture in here so people can see what we’re talking about. Tell me about it, though…
Well, drawing inspiration from this object, our new watch was layered with striking, yet subtle, detailing that appeals to watch and history enthusiasts alike. Limited to just 150 units, the Royal Armouries Arne Special Edition was built as a bespoke, made-to-order timepiece.

On the entertainment side, over the last couple of years we have been working closely with a video game developer that’s building a game set during the Vietnam War. Authenticity and accuracy around the weaponry in the game is a key component for the developers and what started with an exploratory conversation of ways we might be able to help has grown into the Royal Armouries supporting the project in several ways; from providing consultancy and reference materials of original artefacts, through to recording in-game audio and filming marketing and promotional content.

Amazing! What’s the process with you, Jack? If I wanted to reach out about a project, what are the steps as regards exploring your archive?
From beginning to end, our licensing programme is a dynamic process. We believe that strong relationships build great collaborations, so our approach is to offer a personalised service where we treat each project as bespoke. This means the ‘process’ generally starts with a very open conversation!

Perfect!
We often take an objectives-first approach to understand what the collaboration is hoping to achieve, and for which audiences. Our IP and Entertainment offering is still relatively new and we’re continuing to raise the bar there… We’re open to trying new things – whether that’s producing apparel influenced by patterns from Henry VIII’s armour, hosting major brand activations or launching a video game. We want to be spearheading what commercial partnerships can look like for a national museum.

Also, thanks to the growth we’ve seen on our digital channels in the last five years, we’re now reaching a wider audience than ever before. Even among those who may never visit the museum itself, there’s a real appetite for engaging with the collection and the stories behind it. That enthusiasm has not only helped us understand the kinds of partnerships our audiences want to see but has also given us the confidence to be more creative with these collaborations.

What’s your background, Jack? How did you come to doing this?
After a childhood spent visiting museums, I aspired – from a fairly young age – to one day work for one! Before joining the Royal Armouries, though, I spent ten years in the private sector in partnerships and licensing roles. I had several years in the video game industry, working with some outstanding IP across the worlds of sport and entertainment. When the opportunity arose to launch a new offering for the Royal Armouries, focused on expanding their licensing programme and building entertainment industry partnerships, I knew it was a perfect role for me – and I jumped at the chance.

Launching RA Entertainment has not only expanded our reach as a museum to new audiences but also become an important component of our financial sustainability. It was a very proud moment for me when we were nominated for an Arts Professional award earlier this year for business model innovation.

Oh! I hadn’t heard; that’s amazing. Congratulations! To wrap things up, then, tell me: what’s the one question I could’ve asked you today but didn’t?
We may be the world’s oldest museum, but at the Royal Armouries we’re very much looking towards the future… So perhaps a question around what areas we see as being full of potential for licensing and our entertainment sector work?

That would be an excellent question! Let’s pretend I asked it! What would your answer be?
My answer to that is that we have some exciting new licences coming that are, as yet, unannounced – but we believe they have great potential. We’re really looking forward to bringing these to market with our partners later this year.

A future growth area for the museum that I’m excited about is clothing and accessories. Armour, personal protection, safety – these are all fundamental parts of the Royal Armouries collection that I think would translate seamlessly to outdoor and extreme sports brands.

Also, with the success of our Royal Mail stamps collection, we saw there is a real demand for Royal Armouries linked collector items. I’d love to continue to bring objects from the Royal Armouries collection to life for the collectibles market in a way that’s different and exciting for collectibles fans.

Finally, on the entertainment side of things, I think working with feature films has interesting potential for the museum. We had the pleasure of supporting Baz Luhrmann’s research process for his film on Joan of Arc and I’d love to expand the Royal Armouries contribution to the film industry.

Amazing! Sounds like you’ve got some really exciting ideas, Jack. Thanks for making time to tell us about them.

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Fast forward to today, and we are a national museum caring for the United Kingdom’s collection of arms and armour – over 75,000 objects which form one of the most important institutions of its type anywhere in the world. These are displayed across three sites: the Royal Armouries’ historic home in the White Tower at the Tower of London, at Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds and at Fort Nelson, one of the last fortresses ever built in the UK, situated near Portsmouth.

The collection contains artefacts ranging from weapons dated to the European Bronze Age to contemporary firearms and includes royal armours belonging to King Henry VIII and other kings of England, as well as other stunning pieces from across the world that have proudly adorned the great palaces, arsenals, tournament fields and parade grounds of history.

While we hold many historical objects, we are also a Museum which is very much working in the now and the future. We are adding to our collection all the time, often through international loans and partnerships – for example, we’ve loaned our famous horned helmet to the Louvre in Paris recently, and we’ve also hosted a display of decorated Ukrainian armour plates from the current war in Ukraine. We are increasingly involved in wider work around the impact of weapons and war on communities, and with partners such as Border Force to help mitigate the effect of 3D weapons. We want our collection to be able to inspire a better future through the work we do.

What do you think makes the Royal Armouries unique?
I think the history of the organisation is special, and specifically the ways it has displayed its collection over the years. From its 14th century origins in the world’s most famous castle at the Tower of London, to its decision in the 1990s to relocate the majority of the collection outside of London to a purpose-built museum in Leeds – a pioneering move at the time. The museum has been on a fascinating journey and the collections relevance is as absolute now as at any time in its long history.

Every nation and every community has been shaped to a greater or lesser extent by force of arms, and every right or freedom has at some point been won, lost or regained through conflict. Because of this, arms and armour have been pivotal in shaping our past and will continue to shape our future. Through our collection objects are the stories of the people who created them, used them, or were impacted by them – important narratives that we hope can help us all understand our past and move towards the future with greater understanding.

You get 2 million visitors a year across your sites. Can you tell us more about the make up of your audience?
We have many different audiences who engage with the Royal Armouries, both in person and online. As one of the most well-known buildings in London, the majority of visitors to the White Tower at the Tower of London are unsurprisingly international tourists. At the Royal Armouries Museum Leeds and at Fort Nelson, we have a wide range of visitors from both local and regional areas, but also from the rest of the UK and international visitors.

The education programme across Fort Nelson and Leeds sites brings topics like the impact of the Romans and the Home Front in WW2 to life for many thousands of school children and students each year. We run regular events in the school holidays – we have a Roman Festival coming up in August as part of our Gladiators season in Leeds, and Fort Nelson has just booked out again with its Medieval Mayhem half term programme.

“We love collaborating, influencing and inspiring partners to bring our collection to life and engage customers in extraordinary ways.”

We also run exhibitions at Fort Nelson and Leeds, and we’re just about to open our new special exhibitions gallery, with Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum coming to Leeds from Rome and Pompeii in an international exhibition which brings to life the lives of these ancient warriors. Finally, we run a free in person and online lecture programme and conferences, aimed at sharing research and understanding with the academic community and the wider public. These programmes are marketed to the relevant audiences across multi-channel marketing and comms, but also through relationships and many people come to us due to word-of-mouth recommendation.

Our digital channels have been growing exponentially. We have engagement worldwide with much of our content, including our YouTube series, What Is this Weapon, which has resulted in around 400k YouTube subscribers, and our TikTok channel, launched last year and with over 3.5m likes and 10m views to date. We’re finding digital is a key way of engaging a wider audience, some of whom come to visit, but also some who can’t visit but are learning about the collection and the work we do.

One area of commercial activity you are involved in is entertainment. Can you tell us how you work in this sector and share a couple of recent examples of recent partnerships?
We offer a range of specialist services to the Entertainment industries, helping Gaming, TV & Film, Publishing and Consumer Brands to ground their creative visions in historical reality. From filming at our locations, to our curators providing expert insight, to facilitating hands-on experiences with our collection, we bridge the gap between museum and entertainment, offering creators, makers and designers with unique opportunities.

As an example, we recently partnered with the video games review channel IGN to create some informative and fun YouTube content around a new, historically-set video game. We provided period correct weapons and armour, as well as insight into the accuracy of the game in depicting medieval arms, armour and combat.

In a different project for the BBC, our curators helped explore art vs reality in the stories of Sherlock Holmes for a three-part series with Lucy Worsley. Making use of our research and consultancy service, the Royal Armouries Museum as a unique filming location and an on-screen contribution from our firearms curator, we were able to provide a complete solution to an interesting and complex brief. These partnerships are mutually beneficial- we provide support and expertise, our partners create great content and we all engage audiences.

You have recently worked with the Royal Mail on a special issue of stamps featuring your collection. Can you tell us more about this collection, the stamps developed and how you managed the design process?
We were delighted to work with Royal Mail on a special stamp issue and have the opportunity to highlight some of the stand-out artefacts from the collection. The quality of the finished products is stunning and we have seen an overwhelmingly positive reception to the stamps across the press, media and social media.

In all 12 stamps were created for the special issue. Eight stamps show stunning examples of armour from the Tudor and Stuart period that was owned by monarchs, including King Henry VIII, King Charles I and King Charles II. A further four stamps show images of other treasures from the Royal Armouries collection originating from the UK, Europe and Asia.

As for the design process with Royal Mail, our collective vision was to create a visually striking and historically rich stamp collection that would engage stamp collectors, history enthusiasts and the general public alike. Hand in hand with our expert curatorial staff – who provided invaluable insight and guidance throughout the process – we chose to focus the main ‘mint’ collection of eight stamps on armour owned by Henry VIII and other British Kings who are recognisable historical figures. Moreover, these objects were manufactured for royalty so are of the finest craftmanship and decoration, detail which is eye-catching and translates perfectly to the canvas of a postage stamp.

With the remaining four stamps we felt there was an opportunity to focus on other aspects of the collection so purposefully chose to showcase different types of objects, from different geographies and eras such as a sword and scabbard from the Ming dynasty, c.1420 and a European sword with Arabic inscription, c.1365–1432.

Can you tell us about some of your other licensing partners?
We are active with licensed partners in a number of categories and champion design, craft and creativity. We love collaborating, influencing and inspiring partners to bring our collection to life and engage customers in extraordinary ways. Currently we have licensed products that range from replicas, to sporting goods, luxury items, crafting and gifting.

In the luxury sector we have a partnership with Wilde & Harte, who produce British-made shaving razors of the finest quality. Together we have created a beautifully designed product range, inspired by the grand armours of English kings, that celebrates exquisite craftsmanship and delivers an element of splendour.

With our partner, Windlass Steelcrafts, we implemented a detailed study process in order to manufacture the most accurate replicas of weapons from the Royal Armouries that have ever been created. This involved comparing prototypes side-by-side with their historic originals, all under the supervision of our curators, to ensure details matched exactly. The resulting range of nine display replicas are now sold worldwide.

With such a vast and rich collection, it must be a challenge to identify assets to use in licensing. Do you have a specific process for choosing assets for licensing? Do you have style guides and mood boards?
It is a nice challenge, if I can put it that way. The Royal Armouries brand licensing programme highlights our commitment to inspire design and innovation everywhere. We work with licensees operating across Europe, USA and Asia on a range of product categories, each inspired by the museum’s rich archive and core values.

We believe strong relationships build great collaborations, and our approach is to offer a personalised service where we treat each project and client as bespoke. We emphasise taking time in an initial discovery phase to really understand the core aims of a project so that later in the process we can select assets that are the right fit.

Depending on the project, we will utilise materials such as mood boards or style guides as well as other tools such as conducting bespoke research or new asset creation to support a design process and help deliver creative visions.

Are there specific product categories that you are hoping to move the Royal Armouries licensing programme into?
Certainly – the scope and appeal of the brand is far reaching, so there are always new categories and opportunities that we are excited to explore with partners. We actually have a couple of new licensees, in new categories, coming to market this year which we are looking forward to see debut.

One of which is Onoto, the manufacturer of handcrafted, limited edition, luxury British fountain pens. We have designed a stunning product with the team at Onoto, based on some of our royal Tudor armours. We are excited to make available to customers later in 2025. There are a couple of other products in the works as well which we will be sharing news about in the coming months. We are always interested in having conversations with potential partners.

Finally, do you have a favourite artefact in the Royal Armouries collection?
For me that’s similar to asking if I have a favourite child! There are so many incredible artefacts in the collection, for all different kinds of reasons, that it’s impossible to have a favourite. One that never fails to amaze me is a Japanese armour that was presented to King James I by Tokugawa Hidetada in 1613. It’s thought to be the first diplomatic gift between Japan and England, and one of, if not the first, Asian armour on display in the Tower of London. It causes my imagination to run wild every time I see it, thinking about its remarkable journey across the world and the hands it’s passed through.

Another is the Duke of Wellington’s telescope from the Battle of Waterloo. Through that lens Wellington witnessed Napoleon’s last throw of the dice as a commander – which is pretty incredible isn’t it?

Absolutely. Brilliant – thanks again Jack.

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The sword, called Invictus, is being showcased for one month at an exhibition housed at the Tower of London. It marks the first time a sword created from a video game has ever been on display in the Royal Armouries.

“It’s thrilling to see the historic art form of sword crafting continue to thrive in the video game space – and what better way to celebrate this than by displaying this exclusive sword from Final Fantasy XVI alongside the Royal Armouries collection of arms and armour,” said Emma Mawdsley, Keeper of Tower Armouries.

“We are always looking at ways to engage new audiences with our collections across the Museum’s three sites, so we’re very excited to welcome fans of the franchise and gamers alike to the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London.”

The sword was crafted by swordsmith Tod Todeschini using a mixture of traditional techniques and recent technological advancements in sword making.

Todeschini added: “I knew from the very start, this was not going to be an ordinary sword and challenging in every way, but I’m very pleased with the finished sword and proud that it will be available for the fans to view alongside the Royal Armouries collection in the Tower of London.”

The sword will be on display until July 19th.

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The range is inspired by the grand armours of English kings in Royal Armouries’ Line of Kings exhibition at the Tower of London.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Wilde & Harte on a new collection of hand-crafted razors which are inspired by the stunning royal armours in our collection,” said Jack Wanstall, Senior Licensing Manager at the Royal Armouries.

“Skilful design and premium quality were key to the collaboration, underpinned by a shared passion for celebrating heritage. This collection of perfectly weighted British-made razors will deliver an element of luxury to your morning routine.”

Check out the Line of Kings range here https://wildeandharte.co.uk/pages/line-of-kings

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The Royal Armouries Gin combines flavours of zesty citrus with aromatic spice and white pepper to create a spirit ‘bursting with big gutsy character’.

The gin’s bottle design features the elephant armour that’s on display in the Leeds Museum.

“I am excited to add this delicious gin to the elephant armour range, which includes products inspired by a true treasure of the collection and one of our star attractions,” said Marika Hartley, Royal Armouries Retail Development and Innovation Manager.

“Our new gin is the perfect addition to the range.”

Royal Armouries Gin will be launched at a special Armouries After Hours event on November 30th where Coastal Distillery will talk about the botanical origins and distilling process of the gin. A mixologist will be on hand to make a special Royal Armouries Gin cocktail for guests and there will also be presentations about the elephant armour by the Royal Armouries Interpretation Team.

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