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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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Early Georgian Incendiary Iron Cannon Ball
Early 19th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £98
Featuring a circular opening to receive fuse and plug to one face; hollow-formed. 3.9 kg, 11 cm diameter
Fine condition.
Acquired after 2000. Property of a Buckinghamshire, UK, gentleman.
The shrapnel shell is named after Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), a British officer who devised the hollow, gunpowder-filled ball that was fused to explode either in the air or on the ground with the resulting ball fragments proving to be an effective anti-personnel weapon; later types were filled with lead musket balls and powder to make the weapon even more effective against troops; such projectiles were used both with field artillery cannon and with mortars. -
Roman Iron Dagger with Ring Pommel
Circa 2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,170
Featuring a distinctively shaped ring at the end of the grip, double-edged relatively short blade and a tapered tip. 376 grams, 58 cm
Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This kind of sword - called by modern scholars as ringknaufschwert or ring-pommel sword - was firstly diffused amongst the auxiliary troops, probably Sarmatians and Germans, and then, during the 2nd century A.D., was also commonly used amongst the milites legionis and the officers. The shape of their blades is similar to the Pompey typology, but a slightly less acute angle characterises the passage from the blade to the short point. There were longer specimens like spatha, opening the transformation of the legionary gladius in the longer spatha specimens of the successive period, and also shorter specimens. An important dating element for earlier specimens is the sword from the Matrica grave, in Pannonia, dated exactly to 147 A.D. based on the other grave goods. Specimens of the second half of 2nd century A.D. are known from Wehringen and Geneva (180 A.D.). A specimen from Bosnia could be chronologically assigned to the same period, although such kind of swords became much more widespread for infantry and cavalry in later times. However, the importance of such swords has been recently associated with the rank of the provincial officers who used them, including miniature variations of such swords used as pendants as insignia badge of the staff of the Provincial governors. It was connected with the image of the sword and the dagger as a symbol of the Imperial power. -
British WWII Water Bottle
Dated 1940 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Felt covered steel water bottle of oval cylindrical shape with wood plug stopper with cord retainer and fitted with canvas carry cover and shoulder strap with printed 'H S & CO Ltd ' maker name and War Department 'broad arrow' mark and date. 592 grams, bottle 23.5 cm high
The Kusmirek Collection, UK.