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LOT 0266
Luristan Bronze Short Sword
LATE 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
22 in. (876 grams, 56 cm).
With solid cast hilt with penannular guard and a horizontally ribbed grip; a conical stone mushroom pommel and a multi-fullered blade tapering to a sharp tip; handle repaired.
ProvenanceAcquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
Cf. Khorasani, M. M., Arms and Armor from Iran: The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, pp.394-5, for type.
FootnotesAccording to Moorey, such category of swords were distributed in the Northern Iran area, as proved by the Amarlu finds. Based on the example from the Ashmolean Museum, he dated them to the end of the 2nd millennium B.C., more precisely to a period between 1400-1200 B.C.
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Scythian Scale Armour Sections
6th-5th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,340
Two panels from a scale armour coat composed of more than two hundred overlapping bronze scales, each mounted onto a custom-made leather panel for purposes of display; the scales formed in different series, some having holes only in the upper part, some with three holes in the upper part and two holes to the left, and others showing three upper holes and one side hole. 255 grams total, 15.2-16.5 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 a search certificate number no.12044-216404.
The favourite armour of the Scythian noblemen was composed of scales, usually protecting the torso, sometimes the entire body (kataphraktoi). The Scythians found that the most efficient method was to arrange the overlapping ‘fish-scales’ as a corselet made of a number of bronze and iron plates, which then protected the wearer against sword and spear thrusts. Our scales correspond well to bronze scales found in May 1961 in an accidentally destroyed burial in a barrow, near the village of Nadezhda Sovetsky district. They were discovered together with iron scales, a Greek Corinthian helmet, fragments of an amphora, five arrowheads and fragments of an iron sword. Most of these bronze scales were oblong in shape, with a sub-rectangular upper end and a rounded lower end, but slightly bigger than our scales. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Flat Axe
4th millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Formed with a rounded butt and slightly flared cutting edge; flat in cross-section. 138 grams, 18.5 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
This type of flat axes appeared in the last phase of the Late Chalcolithic Age. Flat axes without lugs were used as cutting tools or in war. In the later examples the sides of the blades was gradually widening towards the convex cutting edge. -
Byzantine Bronze Belt Fitting Set
6th-7th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £585
Comprising twelve rectangular plaques and a garnet inlaid buckle, each of the plaques with a pair of low-relief emperor's busts within a pelletted frame. 150 grams total, 35-61 mm
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
