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_900x900.jpg "English Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger")
_200x200.jpg "English Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger")
.jpg "English Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger")
LOT 0264
English Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger
LATE 15TH-EARLY 16TH CENTURY A.D.
12 1/4 in. (178 grams, 31 cm).
Comprising a single-edged blade, whittle tang and cylindrical grip terminating in a bulbous openwork pommel.
ProvenanceAcquired 1960s-1990s.
Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.
Cf. Gilliot, C., Armes & Armures/Weapons & Armours, Bayeux, 2008, pp.142-143, for similar daggers; for a similar handle, see a specimen in Leeds Armoury, inventory no.X.1705.
FootnotesCarried universally throughout Europe, the kidney dagger or ballock dagger (dague a rognons) seems to have been used by all classes of society. Early effigies and brasses prove that the ballock dagger was a knightly weapon. Later on, the more elaborate daggers suggest that it was also a weapon of the emerging merchant and artisan classes. Of course there are also some very simple and crude examples which would probably have been used by the peasants.
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AUCTIONS:
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Medieval Iron Spur Group
13th-15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £78
Comprising: one rowel spur with tapering D-section heelband, short shank and arched rowel box with articulated eight-armed rowel, attachment buckle with tongue suspended from integral loop on one arm, two lobed plaques with loops on reverse suspended from integral loops on the other; a spur with D-section heelband and lentoid-section shank, rectangular and quatrefoil openwork, sections of hatching and raised designs to the outer faces. 215 grams total, 16-18 cm
European collection, 1990s. Property of a Cambridgeshire, UK, gentleman. -
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Pseudo-Illyrian Chalcidian Variant Bronze Helmet
4th-1st century B.C.Estimate: £5,000 - 7,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £1,667
Large rounded two-part bowl rivetted beneath the repoussé crest extending across the brow and around the circumference; repoussé arches above the eyes extending to the nasal; lateral D-shaped cheek-pieces with scallop to the forward edge, pierced for a chin-strap; some restoration of the bowl and one cheek-piece; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 4.7 kg total, 48 cm high including stand
Acquired 1971-1972. From the collection of the vendor's father. Property of a London, UK, collector. 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.11751-202770.
According both to Symonenko and Dedjulkin (2014, p.189, fig.9, nn.4-5-6), this category of helmet derives from Chalcidian types (with pseudo-Illyrian elements). As with Chalcidian helmets, our specimen shows vertical decorative lines on the bowl and triangular brow ornament. Distinct from Attic types, it does not have a protruding neck guard introduced on variant III of such helmets (Symonenko, 2014, fig. 15,2-3). According to Dedjulkin, these helmets derive from Greek prototypes, but are simplifications of the original models and made by local artisans. They were widely worn by mercenaries in the Hellenised armies of Pontus and other Hellenistic kingdoms across the Eastern Mediterranean. -
Massive Late European Bronze Age Finely Ribbed Socketted Spearhead
Circa 10th century B.C.Estimate: £800 - 1,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £400
Formed with an elongated leaf-shaped blade, the socket extending into the blade in the form of a tapered mid-rib with decorative raised central grooves. 449 grams, 45 cm
Acquired from John Cummings, UK, in 1988. Ex Lord Alistair McAlpine collection.
This spear seems to have parallels to those found in the tombs of the 'sword bearers' of central-southern Europe, an aristocratic class of the Urn Fields civilisation who had its last period of splendour between 10th-9th centuries B.C. The weapons were deposited with various objects inside incineration graves, but the spears were often ritually damaged (see tomb 5 of the necropolis of Pontenuovo di Gazzo Veronese, broken into three parts). Our spear, in the upper part, seems to show traces of oxidation due to the fire of the funeral pyre, and probably came from a tomb.
