Gran Pressigny French Stone Age Knapped Long Blade Knife

Triangular-section long-edged knife with old printed paper label '['C' monogram] [L]a Madelaine / Dordogne / 1863 France No.'. 32.3 grams, 10.2 cm



Found by Edouard Latet, La Madeleine, Dordogne, France, 1863. This is a very desired label from pretty much the founder of French Pre-History. This knife was gifted to Haselmere Parish Priest, Charles Borelli (c.1914-2000) of Farnham; who was part of the Borelli family from Italy who emigrated from Lake Como in 1828 to set up the Borelli family watch and jewellery business; thence by family descent to his nephew.

Edouard Lartet, financed and helped by the Englishman Henry Christy, were the first systematic excavators of the site, starting in 1863. They published their findings in 1875 under the name of the Age of the Reindeer. Objects that were found at the La Madeleine site are distributed among a number of museums, including the Muséum de Toulouse, the Musée des Antiquités Nationales, St. Germain-en-Laye and the British Museum.

Scaphoid in plan and plano-convex in section with inked '24' notation; attached to an old collector's card with legends 'Bronze Age' and 'Plano-convex Knife'. 33.8 grams total, 69 mm



Found during the original official excavations in the Farnham area, Surrey, UK, which were conducted by Harold Faulker (1875-1963), and William Francis Rankine (c.1877-1962), who were instrumental with the excavation works and pit dwellings at sites including Six Bells, Frensham, Tilford, Thursley and Bagshot, and Waverley, amongst others at and near Farnham in the 1930s and 1940s. Much of the material is now in the prestigious Farnham museum. The present part of the collection having been gifted to their good friend and Haselmere Parish Priest, Charles Borelli (c.1914-2000) of Farnham; who was part of the Borelli family from Italy who emigrated from Lake Como in 1828 to set up the Borelli family watch and jewellery business; thence by family descent to his nephew.

Farnham district is one of the most interesting prehistoric regions in England, and has been visited by a succession of prehistoric peoples from Palaeolithic times onwards. Along the southern slope of the Farnham valley are three gravel terraces, which are famous prehistorically and have yielded large quantities of flint implements and bones of prehistoric animals, notably the mammoth. In prehistoric times, the chalk deposits played an important role in attracting settlers, as they contained rich layers of flint nodules used to make implements. The Farnham Gravels have been an abundant source of Palaeolithic finds, most prominent being hand axes. The axes differ in type, and each type is associated with a cultural phase of the Palaeolithic period. Types similar to these are found in similar deposits in the Somme valley and in many English valley gravels. Flint mining was also carried out by the Neolithic folk. Polished axes and leaf forms, arrowheads and knives, or possibly lance heads, are characteristic of the Neolithic flint work.

Leaf-shaped in plan and triangular in section, with re-touch to a concave area. 18.7 grams, 48 mm



Found Fontmaure, Vienne department, France. Ex collection of the famous UK musician and amateur archaeologist, Victor Brox (1941-2023). Acquired on the UK art market at auction after being sold by Mr Brox’s family. From the private collection of an East Anglian, UK, specialist collector.