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LOT 0311
Late Roman Iron Sword of Herulian Type
5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.
35 in. (604 grams, 89 cm).
The double-edged spatha with parallel-sided blade and pointed tip, battle nicks to both cutting edges; the hilt and tang extending over the blade as a tight-fitting sleeve; remains of rivet on the tang.
ProvenanceEx private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s.
Acquired from the above, 2004.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no. 11939-210916.
See Dennis, G., Maurice’s Strategikon, handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984; Lebedinski, I., Armes et guerriers Barbares au temps des grandes invasions IVème au Vième siècle après J.C., Paris, 2001, p.118, for a similar example from Chapka-Tserkovnyi Kholm (Abkhazia); Kazanski, M., Mastykova, A., Tsibilium II, La nécropole apsile de Tsibilium, l’étude du site, BAR, 2007, see swords on pl.6, no.27 (Chapka-Cerkovnyj Holm), pl.13, no.14 (Anuhva).
FootnotesThis sword belongs to the group of spathae of late Roman typology, widespread among the Germanic and Abkhazian foederati, and garrison troops of the Northern Black Sea and Caucasus. These swords could have been the prototypes of the Eastern Roman spathia, classified in the Strategikon of Pseudo-Mavrikios as Herouliskia (Herulian swords) for their connections with the Germanic mercenaries bearing them in service with the Roman army.
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LOT 0311
Late Roman Iron Sword of Herulian Type
Estimate £3,000 - 4,000€3,480 - 4,640 (for guidance only)$4,050 - 5,400 (for guidance only)
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Luristan Bronze Horse Bit
9th-8th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £910
The cheekpieces formed as winged deer with horns and small ears, a circular opening to the body for the bar to pass through, two loops and studs to the reverse; the bar with looped circular terminals. 543 grams, 17.5 cm
Ex old English collection. London art market, pre 2000. Property of a Lonodon, UK, gentleman.
The most admirable horse bits ever created by man are undoubtedly those from Luristan, a province which extended along the valleys that make up the central part of the Zagros mountains. Worked in cast bronze with the lost wax process, they almost always had a rigid cannon in round or square bars which were flattened and rolled up around themselves at the ends, but their exceptional feature were the figural side bars. The local metalsmiths, in a period of time between 1200 and 700 B.C. managed to create an infinite number of typologies: horses, oxen, ibex, roosters and various mythological animals. -
Elamite Ceremonial Axe with Silver Sleeve
3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £12,000 - 17,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £6,000
With later sheet-silver sleeve to the shaft, attached with ball-headed rivets; gilt dome finial to each end, the lower one in a gusseted collar. 750 grams, 45.5 cm
Acquired in 1996. Ex Samad Khameneh collection. Private Swiss collection. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11647-199005.
The axe belongs typologically to Type 4 of Maxwell-Hyslop’s classification, with a long and thin shaft narrowing towards the base. When technical developments resulted in heavier axe-blades, it was necessary to prolong the socket into a shaft tube and to cut away the underside of the blade where it joined the shaft. The edge of the blade was curved and this shifted the point of impact of the cutting edge. -
Viking Age Socketted Iron Spearhead
9th-10th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £195
Type E with leaf-shaped blade with curved edges, socket tending towards a square internal cross-section and decorated with chiselled longitudinal grooves. 126 grams, 28.5 cm
Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s. Acquired from the above, 2004.
The spearheads of type E, of which this type is, belongs to the first group of Viking spearheads, i.e. the Frankish spearheads, which appeared between 750 and 950 A.D. These account for one third of the spears found in Viking sites; most of them are pattern forged with herringbone design.
