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LOT 0299
Luristan Bronze Short Sword with Integral Hilt with Crescent Pommel
14TH-10TH CENTURY B.C.
17 1/4 in. (520 grams, 43.7 cm).
A short sword or dagger with slender triangular blade, low round midrib with flat upper face, annular guard and remains of scooped shoulders, columnar grip with three gusseted hoops, crescent pommel.
ProvenanceAcquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
Cf. Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, items 42 and 43.
FootnotesThese kind of bronze daggers or dirks, typical of Marlik culture, were cast in a one piece mould according to Negahban, although in some specimens the penannular guard was later cast into the blade. The separate sets of encircling ribs on the grips are again typical of swords from the Marlik area.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0299
Luristan Bronze Short Sword with Integral Hilt with Crescent Pommel
Sold for (Inc. bp): £468
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Viking Age Iron Pattern-Welded Sword with Bronze Jellinge Hilt
11th-13th century A.D.Estimate: £3,000 - 4,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £1,500
Double-edged cutting sword of Curonian Type with tapering fullers and showing battle scars; boat-shaped bronze cross-guard with Jellinge Style decoration, the seven-lobed pommel with similar decoration. 918 grams, 92.5 cm
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 number no.12175-221434.
The Curonian swords of this type, sometimes with animal head decoration on the lower guard, were widespread and used in the Eastern Baltic lands from 10th to 13th century. Curonian swords possessed both plastic hilt details (ends of the lower guards in the form of animal heads) of animal style, a clear influence from the Germanic style of Scandinavians, as well as a regular geometric ornament, a decoration motif derived from the Romanesque art. -
Byzantine 'Greek Fire' Ceramic Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade
9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £111
A ceramic missile, piriform in profile with band of impressed rings to the equator and larger ring-and-dot motifs beneath, domed filler-hole above, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 829 grams, 14.6 cm
From a military inspired collection formed from the 1990s. Accompanied by an academic paper by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato, dated 15 July 2019 and titled 'Eastern Roman Empire - Greek Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade (μεσαίον kακάβιον) 9th-11th century AD'.
Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Short Sword with Mushroom Pommel
Late 2nd-early 1st millennium B.CSold for (Inc. bp): £780
The hilt with mushroom-shaped pommel, round grip, crescentic guard, long sloping blade with rectangular sectioned mid-ridge. 1.04 kg, 56.5 cm
Ex London, UK, collection, 1990s.
This category of swords has been classified by Khorasani as 'swords with a mushroom pommel' and are usually characterised by a solid-cast hilt with a penannular guard, a ribbed or variously decorated grip and the conical hollow-cast mushroom pommel. Usually the blade is multi-fullered and tapers to a sharp tip. Moorey considers them to be from the end of the 2nd millennium B.C.
