Large North European Bronze Age Sword with Hilt

14TH-11TH CENTURY B.C.

24 in. (700 grams, 61 cm).

A bronze hilted sword with broad midrib to both faces, crescentic guard and waisted grip with incised grooves and disc-shaped pommel with knob terminal.

Provenance

Private collection G.R Coope, 1930s-2011.
Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.

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 the search certificate number no.11590-199451.

Literature

Cf. for similar specimens Born, H., Hansen, S., Helme und Waffen Alteuropas: Sammlung Axel Guttmann IX, Mainz, 2001, pp.114 and 274, pls.90, 144-145 and XXI (AG 1012); Christie's, The Axel Guttmann Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, part 1, London, 2002, pp.8-9, nos.3-4-5; Christie's, The Axel Guttmann Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, part 2, London, 2004, pp.10-11, no.7; the octagonal-hilted sword finds analogies with examples in the Munich Museum, see Ling, J., Hjärthner-Holdar, E., Grandin, L., Stos-Gale, Z., Kristiansen, K., Melheim, A.L., Artioli, G., Angelini, I., Krause, R., Canovaro, C., ‘Moving metals IV: Swords, metal sources and trade networks in Bronze Age Europe’ in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 26, (2019), pp.2-34, fig.5; cf. also The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number 54.46.8, for a similar examples dated 13th century B.C.

CONDITION

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LOT 1140