The Royal Armory of Turin was founded when in the 1830s Charles Albert (1798-1849), king of Sardinia, began collecting weapons belonging to the Savoy in the Beaumont gallery, which until then had housed the large paintings moved to the Royal Picture Gallery.

What was then known as the “Antique and Modern Armory” was organized by its first director Vittorio Seyssel D’Aix, a captain in the artillery, and inaugurated in 1837 after collecting pieces from the Turin or Genoa arsenals, and from the Museum of Antiquities; later, pieces were purchased on the antiques market and entire collections were acquired – such as the one belonging to Milanese set designer Alessandro Sanquirico, and another from Brescia’s Martinengo della Fabbrica family.