Details

LOT 0298

Late Roman Iron Sword with Decorated Guard

5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

29 1/8 in. (696 grams, 74 cm).

A two-edged spatha type with a lentoid parallel-sided blade, sloped shoulders and short tang pierced by an attachment rivet for the grip; the bronze lower guard rectangular in plan and scaphoid in section with inset garnet cloisonné in gold cells with rhomboid patterns alternating with circles; the upper top roundel of the pommel or insertion of the hanging stone divided into four gold cells in garnet cloisonné; accompanied by a barrel-shaped polished hilt stone.

Provenance

From 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 no. 12586-240319.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

Cf. Menghin, W., Das Schwert im Frühen Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 1983, p.335, for cloisonné on guard; Zasetskaïa, I.P., Kul’tura Kotchovnikov iujnorusskikh stepeï v gunnskuïu epokhu (Culture of the nomads of the southern Russian steppes in the Hun Era), Saint Petersburg, 1994; Lebedinski, I., Armes et guerriers Barbares au temps des grandes invasions IVème au Vième siècle après J.C., Paris, 2001, pp.117ff., swords from Loutchistoïé, Novohryhorivka, Bátaszék, Jakuszowice, Szirmabesényo, Ártánd, Horgos; Miks, C., Studien zur Römischen Schwertbewaffnung in der Kaiserzeit, I-II Banden, Rahden, 2007; Strassmeir, A., Das Fränkische Heer der Merowingerzeit, Teil 2 : Schild und Schwert, Berlin, 2019; Kazanski, M.M., Barbarians at the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire (in Russian), Simferopol, 2024, figs.7,12, pp.20, 23, p.31, pl.36, for similar cross-guards.

Footnotes

The sword is a Migration Period sword which usually had stones hanging from the pommel or hilt, like the one preserved here, which finds a parallel with the sword of Lord of Morken (Strassmeir, 2019, p.55, lett.G). This typology was widespread in Central Europe by the Huns and there are also specimens attested in Gaul and Spain in the 5th century.