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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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Byzantine Iron Horse Bit
14th-15th century A.D.Estimate: £150 - 200 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £83
Composed of arched openwork shanks with looped terminals; one end fitted with large hoops and bar between; one end with a tripartite mouthpiece comprising two collared bars connected by a central hoop; Byzantine or early Ottoman. 340 grams, 19.5 cm
Fine condition.
Collection of Dr. Hanns-Ulrich Haedeke (1928-2017), author of ‘Schmuck Aus Drei Jahrtausenden’ and who became the director of the Museum of Klingenmuseum in Solingen, Germany, in 1968; the collection was formed in the early 1960s. From an important private Dutch collection.
This type of horse bit is visible on one of the most important equestrian artworks of the 15th century - the Cappella dei Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli, a painting representing the Three Kings visiting Christ, depicted in costumes belonging to the early quarter of the 15th century. All the cavalrymen in the artwork had heavy curb-bits (with short and curved shanks, as in our specimen) and heavy, single reins. -
Roman Stone and Lead Sling Shot Group
2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £195
Comprising two lentoid-section, one a lead glans, and another in stone. 121 grams total, 47-58 mm
Ex Simmons Gallery, London E11, UK, in the 1990s. From a North London collection.
Both the missiles seem to be of ovoid type, type Ia of the Völling classification. The pair finds parallels with examples unearthed at Ham Hill, Somerset, UK. The sling (funda) with its lead missiles (plumbea pondera or glandae) and stone (lapides) was used by special funditores, illustrated on Trajan’s Column where they are simply dressed in broad tunics with no armour, but carry a shield. A fold in their cloak, or sagulum, acted as an ammunition bag. The effectiveness of the slingers was unquestionable and much appreciated, especially against elephants. Celsus, writing towards the end of the 2nd century A.D., described how a slingshot wound was more dangerous and harder to treat than one inflicted by an arrow. -
Heavy Western Asiatic Bronze Axehead
Late 3rd millennium B.C.Estimate: £100 - 140 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £50
With swept blade, large socket with shallow raised circumferential rib and a vertical rib to the rear. 741 grams, 14.5 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
In the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C., the most widespread types of axes were those made for splitting and those for cutting. In the last third of this millennium there emerged a sharp differentiation between such axes. Such a sharp division by function should be associated with the influence of the Syro-Palestinian tradition. Such differentiation, in the absence of some multifunctional forms can be observed from the end of the 4th millennium B.C. and during the 3rd millennium B.C.
