LOT 0664

Iron Age British Celtic Spatha Sword

2ND CENTURY BC-1ST CENTURY AD

41" (625 grams, 104cm).

An iron spatha-type sword with rounded tip, shallow midrib, scooped shoulders with campanulate guard, square-section tang with domed finial.

The Chris Rudd collection, Norfolk, UK; formed since the 1970s; collection number CE1; acquired privately in 2013. Accompanied by a report of metallurgic analytical results, written by Metallurgist Dr. Brian Gilmour of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford.

See Stead, I. British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards, London, 2006 for discussion.

Chris Rudd has collected ancient coins and antiquities since the 1940s. As an amateur archaeologist he found many himself at Badbury Rings, Dorset, 1952-53. He also dug at Hod Hill with Professor Sir Ian Richmond and at Wroxeter with Dame Kathleen Kenyon and Dr Graham Webster. Today he is best known as a Celtic coin dealer. His catalogues have been described as ‘an important research source’ by Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe and ‘treasure houses of delight’ by Dr Anne Ross. Coins and artefacts associated with Chris Rudd – as a collector, dealer and valuer – can be seen in The British Museum and other museums. This collection was formed since the 1970s.