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LOT 1072
Elamite Ceremonial Axe with Silver Sleeve
3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
18 in. (750 grams, 45.5 cm).
With later sheet-silver sleeve to the shaft, attached with ball-headed rivets; gilt dome finial to each end, the lower one in a gusseted collar.
ProvenanceAcquired in 1996.
Ex Samad Khameneh collection.
Private Swiss collection.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11647-199005.
Cf. similar axehead in the British Museum, item no. 128617; cf. for the type Maxwell-Hyslop, R., ‘Western Asiatic Shaft-Hole Axes’ in Iraq, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 1949), pp.90-129, pl.XXXIV, fig.4b.
FootnotesThe axe belongs typologically to Type 4 of Maxwell-Hyslop’s classification, with a long and thin shaft narrowing towards the base.
When technical developments resulted in heavier axe-blades, it was necessary to prolong the socket into a shaft tube and to cut away the underside of the blade where it joined the shaft. The edge of the blade was curved and this shifted the point of impact of the cutting edge.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 1072
Elamite Ceremonial Axe with Silver Sleeve
Estimate £12,000 - 17,000€13,920 - 19,720 (for guidance only)$16,200 - 22,950 (for guidance only)
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Medieval Iron Anti-Cavalry Caltrop Pair
11th-14th century A.D.Estimate: £100 - 140 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £50
Each with four arms tipped with triangular spikes. 33 grams total, 62-64 mm
Acquired on the German art market before 2000. Property of a Surrey, UK, collector.
Caltrops were scattered on battlefields in an effort to stop or slow advancing enemy cavalry or foot soldiers; regardless of how a caltrop lands, one spike is always facing upwards. Caesar used widely them at Alesia (Caes., BG 7.73; 82): 'Stakes a foot long, with iron hooks attached to them, were entirely sunk in the ground before these, and were planted in every place at small intervals; these they called spurs'. -
Chinese Bronze Military Flag or Banner Finial
Circa 5th-3rd century B.C. or laterSold for (Inc. bp): £468
Composed of a socketted blade divided into six sections with sharp grooves, the shaft with four circumferential bands. 873 grams, 34 cm
Ex old English collection. London art market, pre 2000. Property of a London, UK, gentleman.
The Chinese, having adopted the use of chariot from the west, judging by the monuments and literature used it primarily for archery combat, as evidenced by the absence of spearheads in chariot burials of the Yin Kingdom. But already from the early Zhou Dynasty chariot warriors used a spear. Massive Yin spears were the weapon of dense infantry formations. The shape of our specimen, probably used as standard finial, recalls that of a spear from Zhongzhoulu, Luoyang, Prov. Henan, dated at the 5th-4th centuries B.C., and of two spears from the Zheng fortress of Xinzheng Country, dated to the 4th-3rd century B.C. -
Late Roman Iron Socketted Javelin
4th-6th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £208
Fitted with a triangular blade with two barbs, expanding tubular socket. 213 grams, 23.5 cm
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
Since the third century, Roman soldiers increasingly started to use long shafted socketed weapons with barbed heads. These weapons were called bebrae by Vegetius, according to whom they were able to cut heads with a single stroke. They first appeared in Northern Europe, as shown by numerous finds of barbed heads in graves and peat-bogs, especially Danish, and were introduced to the Roman army by Germanic mercenaries.
