Luristan Bronze Arrowhead Group

Comprising military and civilian weapons: short rapier; basket hilted sword; sabre seemingly with scabbard; rapier blade. 3.45 kg total, 62-100 cm



Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection.

The two sabres, with the particular hilt and steel scabbard, seems to have affinities with Hungarian sabres of about 1837-1838, destined to staff and senior officers of the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom Hussars. At the end of the 1830s, the Austrian military leaders introduced a new type of sabre for the Hussar officers, while the 1837 infantry officer sabre was standardised.

Accompanied by a scabbard with fragments of the slider; the sword with lentoid-section two-edged iron blade, tapering gently to a broad point; slightly bent square-section tang; the fragments of the scabbard show a broad, slender sheath with stepped lower end, the obverse face rolled over the edges to clasp the reverse plate; the suspension elements comprising a fragment of the transverse bars clasping the front and back plates connected to vertical flared straps with a stepped slider-loop to the centre, once framed by two more similar bars with vertical straps forming a hollow square in which the slider-loop sits; mounted on a wall display mount. 1.5 kg total, 87 cm



Private collection, Munich, Germany, 1970s. Private collection, London, UK, 2014, acquired from the above.

Celtic swords of this period were longer, reaching one meter in length, with the tip having the tendency to be rounded, while the scabbards were less decorated or more simply ornamented than the swords of the previous period.

Comprising a smooth, slightly curved and unornamented blade, the hilt wrapped with organic plaited and plain string; tubular bamboo(?) scabbard wrapped with plaited string. 886 grams, 91 cm long



Ex Reeman Dansie, Colchester, Essex, UK.

The dha may have its origins with the Tai people who migrated to the area from present-day Yunnan Province in southern China. This sabre varied considerably according to locality but they shared some features that define them apart from other weapons and tools of the area, like the round cross-section grip, a long, gently curving blade with a single edge, and the absence of a guard.