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LOT 1065
Greek Bronze Socketted Spear with Iron Head
12TH-10TH CENTURY B.C.
6 in. (119 grams, 15 cm).
With foliate head and short tubular socketted shaft.
ProvenanceEx German collection, Cologne, 1980-1990s.
LiteratureCf. D'Amato, R., Salimbeti, A., Early Iron Age Greek Warrior, 1100-700 B.C., figs on pp.18-19.
FootnotesSnodgrass assigns the Athenian iron spearheads to the type A, i.e. spearheads with a leaf-shaped blade, a long socket and a midrib running to the tip. The bronze ones were assigned to typologies C – small, with a leaf-shaped blade (like the present specimen) - and D – with the socket as long as the blade, rounded shoulders and pronounced midrib. Both socket types were beaten round a cylindrical bar, a conservative method to produce bronze sockets even if the head was in iron.
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LOT 1065
Greek Bronze Socketted Spear with Iron Head
Estimate £100 - 140€120 - 160 (for guidance only)$140 - 190 (for guidance only)
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Luristan Bronze Arrowhead Group
2nd-1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £187
Mainly comprising tanged examples of barbed, conical and leaf-shaped types with midribs. 162 grams total, 39-88 mm
Acquired 1990s. From the collection of a late Japanese weaponry collector. -
Viking Age Bronze Jellinge Sword Scabbard Chape
10th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Plate with lip to the outer curved edges, knop to the centre of the bow and spurs to the angles; low-relief design of interlaced foliage within a braided band; lateral mounting holes, three studs to the reverse. 14.7 grams, 52 mm
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s. -
Viking Iron Sword with Inlaid Hilt
8th-10th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £6,240
Comprising a double-edged tapering blade showing shallow fullers and wide cutting edges; boat-shaped lower guard with inlaid vertical copper bands; the upper guard decorated in similar fashion; five-lobed pommel with deep grooves between the lobes, each lobe inlaid with copper bands. 1.05 kg, 90 cm
Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection. 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.11592-199910.
It is the decoration and the structure of the sword that suggest classifying it as a type H of Petersen, rather than type R which usually presents a five-lobed pommel. The copper markings are artistically consistent with archaeological examples of decorative work of Viking swords, notably with the one in Suomen Kansallismuseo, Helsinki, published by Peirce (2002, pp.6off.). The decoration, which here takes the form of vertical copper lines, is striped as on the Helsinki specimen.
