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LOT 0322
Iron Age Bronze-Hilted Sword
8TH-6TH CENTURY B.C.
30 3/4 in. (2.2 kg total, 78 cm including stand).
A broad iron sword with tapering blade and rounded shoulders, bronze hilt with crescentic pommel and apotropaic eye motifs to both sides; accompanied by bronze scabbard or baldric elements including a pair of eyelets with suspension loops, four circular appliqués with conical tips and ropework borders, and a scabbard chape with two opposing ibexes; mounted on a custom-made display stand.
ProvenanceFrom the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
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.12914-245170.
Cf. Voronov, Yu. N., ‘Weapons of the Ancient Abkhaz Tribes in the 6th-1st Centuries BC’ in Скифский мир., Киев, 1975, pp.218-234, fig.4, no.1, for a similar blade; Gorelik, M.,Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg (2003) in Russian, pl. VI, no.65.
FootnotesThe sword belongs to the Caucasian culture of the Colchis and represents a very rare typology. A similar blade was found together with early Scythian arrows during excavations at Karmir-Blur. A similar combination found at Kulanurkhva’s excavations suggests that the appearance of such blades in Abkhazia is linked to the Scythian campaigns in Near Eastern Asia.
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LOT 0322
Iron Age Bronze-Hilted Sword
Estimate £3,000 - 4,000€3,480 - 4,640 (for guidance only)$4,050 - 5,400 (for guidance only)
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Celtic to Medieval Bronze Ring Collection
1st century B.C.-16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Comprising: five rings with decorative bezels; a coiled ring with linear decoration. 23.39 grams total, 20-25 mm
Acquired on the UK and EU art market before 2000. From the private collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.
The collection includes one complete copper-alloy finger ring of late Iron Age to Roman date (200 BC - AD 200). It is coiled into a spiral of two and a half turns. Both extremities terminate in a square end with rounded corners. -
Celtic Bronze God Cauldron Mount
Iron Age, 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £468
Modelled in the half-round as a male bust with serpent headdress and torc; the hair depicted with a braided outer band framing the face and terminating at the jawline; the brow broad and heavy with raised eyebrows and sunken eye-sockets, narrow nose and small flat mouth; fleshy cheeks and chin; the slender neck with V-shaped collar or torc; the shoulders and chest with a slot to the lower edge to accept a gerrous insert; at the apex a S-curved crest extending to the rear and terminating in a narrow loop. 51.28 grams, 47 mm
Acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s. From the private collection of an Essex gentleman.
The format, workmanship and proportions of the piece recall a number of Gallic images of Iron Age date. The slanting eye sockets below a heavy brow appear, for example, on the idol from Neuvy Pailloux (Boucher, item 47), as does the collar with a centrepiece below the chin on the same item. The thick band of hair appears on a bronze figurine from Neuvy-en-Sullias (Boucher, item 55) and several others (e.g. items 56, 71), but its placement and curvature also suggest a ram's horns. The curved crest may represent a serpent, or more likely the neck of a swan or goose, as seen in a figure of Mars from Chaudon (Rolland, item 24; Boucher, item 69). The likely function of the piece is difficult to determine since it is too short to form an effective handle or hilt for a dagger, yet the width of the slot (about 1.mm) suggests that it was meant to accept a thin iron sheet. It is possible that the piece was intended to be a decorative mount for the rim of a bowl or cauldron. -
'The Cox Green' Romano-British Bronze Naked Figure of a Child
1st-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £845
Modelled in the round in seated pose with a ball (or nut, or fruit) in his left hand; the hair short and combed radially from the crown; mounted on a custom-made stand. 57.3 grams, 78 mm
Found Cox Green, Windsor and Maidenhead, UK, on Sunday 1st September 2019. Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.BERK-3D408B.
