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LOT 1553
Greek Lead Slingshot with Monogram
3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.
1 1/4 in. (30.6 grams, 33 mm).
Lenticular type with casting seam to the rim, raised monogram (caduceus?) on one side. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceEx German art market, 2000s.
Acquired from an EU collector living in London.
From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.
Cf. Schinco, G., Small, A.M., 'A previously unknown siege of Botromagno/Silvium: the evidence of slingshots from Gravina in Puglia (Provincia di Bari, Puglia)' in Papers of the British School at Rome, 2019, pp.1-52, figs.7-8-9, 37 (type Volling IIb); for a bullet with caduceus see Tsaravopoulos, A., 'Inscribed sling bullets from "Kastro" in Antikythera (Greece), in Gdanske Studia Archeologiczne no.2, Gdansk, 2012, pp.207-220, fig.10d.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 1553
Greek Lead Slingshot with Monogram
Estimate £60 - 80€70 - 93 (for guidance only)$81 - 108 (for guidance only)
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Byzantine 'Greek Fire' Ceramic Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade
9th-11th century A.D.Estimate: £80 - 100 (+bp*)
Bids: 1 | Current Bid: £5
Piriform body with domed filler-hole; intended to be filled with explosive liquid and a wick, and used as a hand grenade. 787 grams, 12.9 cm
From an important specialist collection, London, UK, 1990s. Accompanied by an academic paper by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato, dated 15 July 2019 and titled 'Eastern Roman Empire - Greek Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade (μεσαίον kακάβιον) 9th-11th century AD'.
Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια, where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Spearhead
9th-7th century B.C.Estimate: £100 - 140 (+bp*)
Bids: 5 | Current Bid: £90
Comprising a leaf-shaped blade with a midrib and a long tapering socket; accompanied by a display stand, repaired. 365 grams total, spearhead: 36.5 cm (38.2 cm including stand)
Ex Abelita family collection, 1980s-2000s.
The spear, belonging to type 3 of the Khorasani classification, was used by chariot fighters to strike each other or the enemy infantry from above. Similar specimens with longer sockets were excavated by Negahban in the Amlash area. According to Moorey, sockets as long, if not longer than the blade, are a characteristic of Iranian spearheads in the late 2nd and early 1st millennium B.C. A similar spearhead from the Tappeh Sialk has been dated to the 9th-7th century B.C. -
Celtic Iron Open Socketted Splayed Axehead
Late Hallstatt-Early La Tene Period, circa 450 B.C.Estimate: £50 - 70 (+bp*)
Bids: 2 | Current Bid: £20
Flaring blade with a rectangular-section folded socket. 155 grams, 84 mm
Ex M. Spiegelberg collection, since 1989-1992; thence by descent. Accompanied by a copy of a previous yellow cataloguing slip.
