Details

LOT 0001

Bronze Age 'St Nazaire' Type Sword

1100-1000 BC

21 3/4" (417 grams, 52.5cm).

A slender leaf-shaped waisted blade with two sets of four parallel lines engraved to each face, short notched ricassi, angled shoulders and slight flanges to the edges of the hilt; median slot and four rivet holes, one with the rivet in situ. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Ex Sir Richard Ground (1949-2014) Collection, Derbyshire, UK; acquired Hermann Historica sale 52, lot 3517, 7 May 2007 (hammer price €6,300); formerly Sig. Freiherr v. Lipperheide, Berlin; found Chateaubriant, France, before 1906.

Literature

Cf. Evans, J. The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1881, item 343; Savory, H.N. Guide Catalogue of the Bronze Age Collections,Cardiff, 1980, item 268; Burgess, C. & Colquhoun, I. The Swords of Britain, Prähistorische Bronzefunde, Ab. IV, vol.5, Munich, 1988, items 251-255.

Footnotes

The Breton St. Brieuc Phase is equivalent to the English Wilburton Phase; only the retention of the fine grooves on the Breton examples indicates that this is a continental rather than British type. Each piece from the collection is accompanied by Sir Richard's personal illustrated catalogue sheets which describe the piece fully, give details and circumstancers of his acquisition, academic references and general notes.

The eminent lawyer Sir Richard Ground, OBE (1949 - 2014), a graduate of Lincoln College Oxford, was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1975. After a period spent specialising in media law, he was, in 1983, appointed Crown Counsel in the Cayman Islands, a position which he held until 1987 when he assumed the role of Attorney General. He served as Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 1998 to 2004, and then as Chief Justice of Bermuda until his retirement in 2012. Highly regarded in legal circles for his decisiveness and impeccable integrity, he was awarded the OBE in 1991 in recognition of his services to the Cayman Islands, and was made a Knight Bachelor in 2012 for services to justice in Bermuda. He had a passion for the natural world and worked alongside his wife, fellow lawyer Lady Ground, to found the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, as well as publishing several volumes of wildlife photography.

Sir Richard was a keen and knowledgable collector of both coins and ancient weaponry. His collection of Roman, Byzantine, English, and European coins fetched exceptional prices when sold by Spink in September 2014. It is with pride that we are able to offer his collection of Bronze Age weaponry for auction.

CONDITION