Details

LOT 0458

Iron Age Celtic Sword in Decorated Scabbard

1ST CENTURY BC-1ST CENTURY AD

33" (1.2 kg, 84cm).

An iron sword within its iron scabbard with fittings; the sword of standard La Tène type, two-edged with leaf-shaped blade, short shoulder and broad tang with button finial; the scabbard formed from iron plates with clamped edges held by clips, prominent midrib to the obverse and scooped upper edge; suspension loop of Stead's Type 2b with D-shaped attachment plates; chape of Stead's southern type a1 with clamps to the reverse and bridge to the obverse; obverse with low-relief repoussé decoration comprising La Tène triskeles and comma-leaf motifs within circular frame with opposed beast-heads above.

Provenance

From an important English collection; acquired in the 1990s.

Literature

See Stead, I. British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards, London, 2006, item 8 for type.

Footnotes

The low-relief detailing at the top of the scabbard is a noted feature of British Iron Age swords. Similar designs appear on the scabbard retrieved from the River Thames at Battersea (Stead, 2006, item 8) where the corrosion has destroyed most of the detail but the heads of the two 'dragons' can be made out. The heads on the present example are attached to long arching necks each of which forms the circular frame for a triskele motif with an S-scroll below and extended leg below that.

CONDITION