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LOT 0294
Amarlu Bronze Dagger with Bell-shaped Pommel
LATE 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
20 1/2 in. (505 grams, 52 cm).
With solid cast hilt, straight horizontal guard with turquoise inlay; plain narrow grip with conical hollow cast mushroom pommel decorated with dots and lines; wide shallow midrib on the blade tapering to a sharp tip.
ProvenanceEx old English collection.
London art market, pre 2000.
Property of a London, UK, gentleman.
Cf. Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, s.cat 36, for type.
FootnotesMoorey and Khorasani dated swords with mushroom pommels to the end of the second millennium B.C. The weapon belongs to Category IX of the Khorasani classification, the ones with a mushroom or bell-shaped pommel. A similar example is in the National Museum of Iran, Tehran.
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AUCTIONS:
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North Western Bronze Short Sword
2nd-1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,885
Of fine quality, showing an open cast crescentic pommel with raised midrib and two parallel shallow lines across the top; pommel open on both sides to reveal the tip of the blade, tang rising from the grip; the solid cylindrical grip decorated with fourteen circumferential ribs, angular guard and triangular blade with strong midrib. 1.05 kg, 58 cm
Ex P.A., Hertfordshire, UK, specialist collection of Greek art, 1980-1990s.
The dirk has its hilt cast onto the blade. Moorey published a very similar piece with fourteen encircling ribs on the grip and attributed similar pieces to the North-West, also based upon examples of similar dirks from the Iranian and Russian Talesh region. He dated these pieces to the late 2nd millennium B.C. Similar examples were excavated at Marlik. Stutzinger attributed these types with a wider dating (13th-9th century A.D.) -
Ottoman Inscribed Pattern-Welded Yatagan Sabre
c.1800 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £585
With a pattern-welded 'damascened' single-edged T-section blade with swept profile, guard with quadrant profile with rosettes, antler grip with projecting ears; silver-inlaid name panel to one face, with silver-inlaid arabesque panel to the other; blade inscribed with the Arabic year '1172'; silver maker's mark and inscription either side of the blade. 650 grams, 79.5 cm
Very fine condition. Rare.
Acquired in the 1970s. Ex collection of a London gentleman.
The yatagan is a long knife or short sabre that lacks a guard for the hand at the juncture of blade and hilt, and that usually has a double-curve to the edge and an almost straight back. It was one of the favoured side-arms of the Janissary infantry regiments. Yatagans were carried by the Zeibeks, who lived on the Ionian coast, around Smyrna. -
Roman 'Pompey the Great' Lead Slingshot
1st century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £286
Biconical lead slingshot (glans) with inscription in Latin letters 'CN' (Cneius) 'MAG' (Magnus) on one side, and 'IMP' for 'IMPERATOR' (victorious general) to the other side, i.e Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus Imperator (Pompey the Great the victorious general). 47 grams, 39 mm
Ex M.Cummings, UK, 1990s.
The shot (Völling type 1C) is marked with the abbreviated name of Gnaeus Pompey; it was used in quantity at the Battle of Monda (or Munda) against Julius Caesar, 17th March 45 BC. The projectiles were made of different materials: lead (glandes) or in pottery or stone (lapides missiles). Sometimes they were signed with the name of the general, like our specimen.
