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LOT 0973
Byzantine Bronze Pendant with Angel and Inscription
6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.
1 1/2 in. (7.9 grams, 39 mm).
Claw-shaped with cross and angel motif to the obverse; an inscription reading '+O KAT...Y' to the reverse.
ProvenanceAcquired on the London, UK, art market in the 1990s.
From a gentleman's private collection.
Cf. Wamser, L., Die Welt von Byzanz - Europas Östliches Erbe, München, 2004, item 585, for identical object.
FootnotesWhile one side is engraved with an angel with a cross-staff, the other side is engraved with the beginning of Psalm 91 (90): + Ο ΚΑΤΟΙΚΟΝ ΕΝ ΒΟΗΘΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΥΨΙϹΤΟΙ…(He who dwells in the shadow of the Most High…).
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AUCTIONS:
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Byzantine Bronze Reliquary Cross Pendant
10th-12th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £208
Hollow-formed and hinged at the lower edge, with low-relief crucifixion to one face and robed figure to the other. 24.9 grams, 66 mm
Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of Surrey, UK, gentleman. -
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Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Bronze Cross Group
7th-19th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
Comprising: a cross buckle with pin; the upper plate of a small enkolpion with a praying Virgin or Saint; two orthodox pectoral crosses, both with inscription 'IC' (Iesus) 'XC' (Christos ) 'NIKA' (Christ is victorious); the smallest cross with invocation-prayer engraved on the back. 51.8 grams total, 36-73 mm
Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a Ruislip, UK, gentleman, by inheritance.
The fragment of the simpler Maltese cross mount corresponds to the type E2 of Schulze-Dörrlamm, here with straight arms with rounded corners. It resembles the cross-shaped hinge fittings of the belt buckles from Herrera de Pisuerga and tomb 9 from El Tesorillo from Visigoth Spain, two bronze fittings from Lusitania and the buckle with busts of saints and the Greek inscription 'Light and Life' from Korbous in Tunisia. These kind of buckles were also found in male warrior graves. -
Turco-Mongol 'Greek Fire' Ceramic Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade
14th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £260
Piriform body with vertical bands of pellets and roundels, knop finial, tiered and domed filler-hole, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 755 grams, 15 cm
From a specialist collection of militaria, London, UK, collected 1990s onwards.
Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form.
