Greek Bronze Cuirass Section of Thorax Stadios

A 'Curonian' sword comprising a straight blade with a narrow and long tang, showing signs of employment on the edges; boat-shaped bronze cross guard with Jellinge style decoration of circles and crosses; rivetted seven-lobed pommel with an upper guard showing similar ornament. 689 grams, 81.5 cm



Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s. Westminster collection, central London, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12618-235588. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The sword, with its seven-lobed pommel and its guards finds good parallels with Baltic swords used by Prussian, Curonians, Estonian and Lithuanian pagan warriors; clear parallels can be seen in Kazakevičius 1996, figs.62-63 (fig.2) and Tomsons, 2012, fig.2 (Fig.3),3,7. The Curonian swords of this type, sometimes with animal head decoration on the lower guard, were widespread and used in the Eastern Baltic lands from 10th to 13th century.

A single-edged machaira sword of falcata typology, the hilt formed as a gracefully curving horse's head and neck, the blade with deep grooves, inlaid with geometric ornaments on the hilt and blade. 771 grams, 57.7 cm



Ex White Collection, England, 1970s. The Bonnhauser Collection, Zurich, 2003. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Since the 5th-4th century BC, the Iberian warriors armed themselves with round shields and single-edged swords (falcatas), gradually adopting the appearance of hoplite armies and the Etruscan version of the machaira. The latter type of sword was duly transformed into a completely new type, with a different size, shape and function, the falcata, which was already in use in the Iberian area by c. 490 BC. This falcata, a type of curved, one-edged sword of supposedly Greek origin, is generally accepted by the scholars as the 'national' weapon of the Iberians, usually suspended on the left side of the warrior, inside a sheath to which sometimes was attached a short knife. It was a terrible cut-and-thrust sword, with an average blade length of 45 cm.

With gently curving blade, long neck with a spur, round socket with vertical flanges. 331 grams, 14 cm



From a North American collection formed in the 1970s-1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.