The audience waiting on the steps of the Lobero Theatre on Sunday night December 9, 1957, consisted of hip jazz lovers, some from the College Jazz Club, sponsors of the concert, all eager. Legendary master of the vibes and the bongos, Cal Tjader, performed “hot numbers,” mambos, and “cha cha chas” with his four jazzmen, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press.
The Lobero became a jazz destination after the 1953 performance by Dave Brubeck and his All Stars. Tjader was an alumnus of Brubeck and the George Shearing Ensemble. So the Lobero became instrumental in developing the “West Coast” style of jazz. Artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Betty Carter, Shirley Horn, and Sarah Vaughan loved the venue. Having paid between $1.50 and $2.50 per ticket, the audience took their seats, comprising a possible full house.
In that Lobero audience lurked a thief
After the concert a fine collection of late medieval eight to ten foot long combat weapons, décor on the main lobby wall, went from four to three. Theater manager Dorothy Fenzi made the discovery as she shut down the House. Someone walked out of the concert hoisting a ferocious spiked and bladed iron weapon on a hefty wooden pole. The weapons, known as polearms, sported two halberds, weighty and terrifying iron with twenty-inch spikes, blades and flukes, and two scimitar-like fauchards, curved fourteen-inch blades with gaffers to the back. On entering the Lobero patrons immediately saw the wall bearing these fierce cousins to medieval spears and lances. After the concert in 1957 the wall displayed only an empty space.
Theater manager Fenzi likely saw the polearms daily. In a reported interview with the police that night she stated the weapons had been donated in 1949 or 1950. Their location on display at the theater gives a clue as to their significance and use. Perhaps the staff considered them important enough to hang on the entry wall which today holds the famed eighty-four-inch wide Lobero Golden Eagle. Possibly they considered the polearms, with their medieval iron, appropriate décor for the 1924 Spanish Colonial style architecture, designed by George Washington Smith and Lutah Maria Riggs.
The News-Press interviewed Frenzi for their December 10, 1957 issue. Testimony to 1950s American naiveté, they quoted her as saying she hoped whoever took it would return it after he (sic) learns its real value. The article states the “lances” were described as 16th century.
Miraculously Fenzi’s wish came true
A subsequent story on December 12, 1957 reports that Fenzi, on Thursday night, found the weapon propped up against the back wall of the theater. The paper quotes Fenzi as assuming the culprit returned it because the weapon became “too hot to handle.” Thus, the four polearms became reunited, although the theater didn’t remount them on that lobby wall for fear of further thefts. To this day they live together at the Lobero.
Brett Hodges, board member and historian of the Lobero invited me to opine on the authenticity of the weapons. Located for at least the last 40 years in the mysterious basement bowels of the theater. During my visit staff members offered opinions on their purpose. Some believed them props originally donated for a specific medieval history play. But they’re heavy, sharp, and dangerous, unwieldy on stage, and as Fenzi said after the theft, of significant value. Perhaps staff thought them too precious, and deadly, for a stage fight.
Props not often displayed as rare art
The Polearms hung in pride of place in the Lobero lobby for at least seven or eight years since their donation. Perhaps after a stage debut as props the theater put them on display. Even Shakespeare’s plays feature medieval style weaponry. His cryptic stage directions of “they fight” often called for props such as short swords, rapiers, cudgels, daggers, poniards, and bastard swords.
I often discover syncretic relationships between people, places, and objects. Polearms like these halberds and fauchards have a connection to Genoa, Italy, the birthplace of Giuseppe Lobero (1823). For this reason a knowledgeable donor may’ve gifted them to the Lobero. Even though Lobero died in 1892, his memory (and ghost) might prompt a donor to honor him. Who knew “Joe” Lobero’s history in the 1950s? At the date of the theft Lobero was on his way to getting his “propers” while in repose in an unmarked grave. On May 5, 1962, a civic minded community group installed a gravestone for “Joe” (Giuseppe) at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.
Back to the Genoese connection
The Genoese Navy used a type of halberd called a Sergentina in the 16th century and still carry the polearm in ceremonies today. A few organizations, including the Genoese Navy, display the weapon, as do the Papal Swiss Guards, and the British Yeomen of the Guards. Perhaps a patron once visited Northern Italy and purchased these four polearms as an appropriate gift to the theater and its long dead, but not forgotten, founder.
What are they worth? Yes, they are antiques. I believe at least two of them are authentic to the 16th century. Does their age at 450 years make them valuable? If two were reproductions does that affect value? Yes, they’re rare because of their age(s), and because as a ceremonial object they symbolize a rare appearance. Rarity influences value. But these weapons have a limited market, 16th century, 19th century, or otherwise.
Aggressive killing machines equals lack of market
I describe the halberd with a robust twenty-inch central spike, and an axe blade for chopping through armor when swung. On the other side of the blade is a hook called a fluke, all in cast iron, mounted on a eight-foot wood pole with a square haft. The blades pierced with a cross and arch motif. The fauchards have a fourteen-inch curved blade, chased, a form of decorative indentation, with a figure in Roman armor and a date of 1587.
The other with a heraldic coat of arms with a spread eagle dated 1571. On the other side of the cutting edge, there are lance points attached to the back as a dagger, in steel, on an eight-foot pole. They’re simple and blatantly fierce. During the late medieval period, weapons were unsophisticated, and the Church forbade any weapon used that was not mentioned in the Bible. Thus, the sophisticated arms of ancient Rome weren’t employed, so I believe the two fauchards to be 19th century ceremonial reproductions. A weapon made for battle in the 16th century wouldn’t bear a date nor have been ornately chased with a Roman soldier.
Two halberds may be 16th century and are worth $850 each. The two fauchards may be 19th century ceremonial reproductions and are worth $450 each. I contacted the auction house famous for sales of antique weapons and arms, the San Giorgio Aste, coincidentally located in Genoa, Italy. Similar pole arms sell for between 400 and 800 euros.