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LOT 1090
Luristan Bronze Horse Bit Terminal Pair
9TH-8TH CENTURY B.C.
6 in. (218 grams total, 15 cm wide including stand).
Comprising two terminals in the form of human-headed horned and winged sphinxes; mounted on a custom-made display stand.
ProvenanceFrom an old London, UK, collection.
Ex London, UK, gallery.
Cf. Moorey, P.R.S., 'The Art of Ancient Iran', in Ancient Bronzes, Ceramics and Seals, Los Angeles, 1981, items 150-3; British Museum accession no.134746, in Curtis, J.E. & Tallis, N., The Horse from Arabia to Ascot, London, 2012, p.98, cat.25, for the type.
FootnotesThe most admirable horse bits ever created by man are undoubtedly those from Luristan, a province in the north-west of Iran 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.
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AUCTIONS:
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Scythian Iron Akinakes Sword with Decorations
4th century B.C.Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £750
Of Central Asian typology, strong hilt and narrow ogival guard with Steppe style ornamentation, tipped hilt, triangular tapering blade fitted with a central triangular blood channel with sixteen grooves. 481 grams, 58.5 cm
Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s. Acquired from the above, 2004.
The akinakes was a characteristic Scythian type of weaponry, which was used throughout their history (7th-3rd centuries B.C.). With the departure of the Scythians from the steppe in the 3rd century B.C., and the appearance of the Sarmatian tribes in the Northern Black Sea region in the 2nd-1st centuries B.C., Sarmatian types of bladed weapons spread in the region. This particular shape of akinakes belongs to the nomadic cultures of Central Asia. -
North West Persian Short Sword with Blood Channels
2nd-1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £300 - 400 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £150
With short tang for an organic hilt, the blade showing multiple grooves forming a pronounced mid-rib spanning roughly more than three-quarters of the blade; accompanied by a custom-made display stand. 1.18 kg total, 45.5 cm (49 cm including stand)
Ex P.A., Hertfordshire, UK, specialist collection of Greek art, 1980-1990s.
Luristan was hardly an ethnic or political entity, but the people of Luri had relations through warfare and traded with Sumerians, Lullubi, Assyrians, Babylonians and Elamites over a long period of time, spanning from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium B.C. The ruling elites of warrior horsemen were buried with their weapons and horses. -
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Siamese 'Wild Tigers Corps' Type 62 Pattern 1907 Bayonet and Scabbard
Dated 1919 A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
Stamped 2642 in Thai numerals at top of blade with 'tiger mask' mark for Siam, together with original British marks, fitted with wood grip scales and spring release button; the scabbard with original throat and chape, modified in Thailand to replace the original leather main section. 726 grams, 58.5 cm
Property of a Luton, UK gentleman, by inheritance.
The Type 62 is a re-badged British Pattern 1907 bayonet. Siam purchased 10,000 SMLE rifles and Pattern 1907 bayonets from Britain in 1919 to equip the 'Wild Tiger Corps', royal bodyguard of Vajiravudh, King Rama VI (reigned 1910–1925). The tiger figural on the ricasso is representative of the Wild Tiger Corps. Year 2462 on the Buddhist Calendar corresponds to 1919. SMLE rifles and Pattern 1907 bayonets were taken from British stocks, refurbished by Birmingham Small Arms (BSA), and remarked with Siamese markings. The bayonets were shipped with standard steel-mounted leather scabbards. However, the leather rapidly deteriorated in the tropical climate, so the Siamese made a replacement steel scabbard body to which the original steel mounts were brazed.
