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LOT 1048
Luristan Bronze Blade Collection
EARLY 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
7 7/8 - 9 1/2 in. (485 grams total, 20-24 cm).
Comprising six bronze short tapering blades, all with rounded shoulders and flattened mid-ribs, four with tapering tangs, one with tang pierced at tip; one of the narrowest blades is without a tang. [6]
ProvenanceAcquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
See Christie's, The Axel Guttmann Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, part 1, London, 2002, p.34, no.31.
FootnotesMoorey, Gordon and Khorasani created a classification of bladed weapons, according to which daggers are edged weapons not greater than 36cm in length, dirks (short swords) are between 36cm and 50cm in length, and swords are edged weapons greater than 50cm in length. These weapons belong to the dagger category.
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AUCTIONS:
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Iron Age Celtic La Tene III Sword
1st century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £780
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. -
Luristan Bronze Dirk
Circa 1000 B.C.Estimate: £400 - 800 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £139
Composed of a leaf-shaped blade with a raised penannular rib and slot below the shoulder connected to the grip with lateral flanges and integral pommel, recessed to accept an organic insert. 264 grams, 37.5 cm
From an old English collection, formed in the 1980s. The Kusmirek Collection, UK.
This dirk, cast in one piece mould, belongs to the daggers that Medvedskaya believes support the thesis that majority of them were cast in one piece. However, there are examples where the penannular grip was cast on later on the dagger or dirk. -
Elamite Bronze Macehead
Early 2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £312
Of tapering cylindrical form with flange to socket, the upper body displaying vertical columns of chevrons between plain bands. 449 grams, 23 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
This gorz mace head belongs to the category of truncheon-shaped mace-heads, a type developed on the Iranian plateau during the Bronze Age, used by Elamite and Luristan warriors since the 3rd millennium B.C. This category of objects was also interpreted as a part of a shaft or cudgel, but most scholars agree on the interpretation of use as a mace.