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LOT 0261
Caucasian Bronze Hilted Iron Sword
IRON AGE, 8TH-6TH CENTURY B.C.
30 3/4 in. (2.2 kg total, 78 cm including stand).
A broad sword with tapering blade and rounded shoulders, bronze hilt with crescentic pommel and apotropaic eye motifs to both sides; accompanied by bronze scabbard or baldric elements including a pair of eyelets with suspension loops, four circular appliqués with conical tips and ropework borders, and a scabbard chape with two opposing ibexes; mounted on a custom-made display stand.
ProvenanceFrom the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12914-245170.
Cf. Voronov, Yu. N., ‘Weapons of the Ancient Abkhaz Tribes in the 6th-1st Centuries BC’ in Скифский мир., Киев, 1975, pp.218-234, fig.4, no.1, for a similar blade; Gorelik, M.,Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg (2003) in Russian, pl. VI, no.65.
FootnotesThe sword belongs to the Caucasian culture of the Colchis, and represents a very rare typology. A similar blade was found together with early Scythian arrows during excavations at Karmir-Blur. A similar combination found at Kulanurkhva’s excavations suggests that the appearance of such blades in Abkhazia is linked to the Scythian campaigns in Near Eastern Asia.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0261
Caucasian Bronze Hilted Iron Sword
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000€4,640 - 6,960 (for guidance only)$5,400 - 8,100 (for guidance only)
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Viking Age Iron Socketted Spearhead
Circa 9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £91
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From the family collection of a South East London collector; formerly acquired in the late 1950s. -
Mesopotamian Veined Mottled Grey Stone Macehead
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Saxon Sacrificed Iron Spatha with Bronze Chape
5th-6th century A.D.Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £600
Double-edged long sword (spatha) of type Osterburken-Kemathen; the blade with squared shoulders, broken into two parts for sacrificial reasons, tapering towards the point; sturdy tang partially preserved; wooden traces of the scabbard and hilt still visible; accompanied by a bronze outer rim of a scabbard; restored. 630 grams total, 78 cm long
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
The deliberate fragmentation of a sword, often into three pieces, was a symbolic act of ‘killing’ the weapon, which was then placed as a grave good or offered in a ceremonial context. This was a Germanic custom already visible in the Vandal Przeworsk culture around the 3rd or 4th century A.D., which continued in Northern European areas until the 5th and the 6th centuries A.D.
