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LOT 0263
Marlik Bronze Spearhead with Linear Decoration
14TH-10TH CENTURY B.C.
24 in. (436 grams total, 61 cm high including stand).
Of triangular shape with projecting midribs with vertical grooves alongside, long folded socketted shaft with eighteen horizontal grooves at the base, hole for attachment to a wooden shaft.
ProvenanceEx German collection, 1980s.
From a Surrey, UK, private collection, 1990s.
Cf. Khorasani, M.M., Arms and Armour from Iran. The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, item 271.
FootnotesThis specimen belongs to the type VIII, subtype B of the Khorasani classification. Similar specimens were excavated in the Marlik Royal cemetery by Dr Negahban. The spearheads of this type are characterised by well projecting mid-ribs and long, folded sockets.
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LOT 0263
Marlik Bronze Spearhead with Linear Decoration
Estimate £600 - 800€700 - 930 (for guidance only)$810 - 1,080 (for guidance only)
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Bactrian Bronze Eye Axehead
3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £200 - 300 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £100
Fan-shaped blade; an apotropaic eye in relief to each side of the socket; wing-shaped extension to the rear. 327 grams, 16 cm
From an old London, UK, collection. Ex London, UK, gallery.
Most of these axes are believed to have originated in Bactria, but some objects come from well documented contexts in Margiane (Gonur), Lut (Shahdad) and Kermanshah (Khinaman). According to Gernez they were made for ceremonial use. -
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Roman, 1st-3rd century A.D. or laterSold for (Inc. bp): £26
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From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
The operation of the onager (Latin for 'wild ass') is first mentioned in 353 A.D. by Ammianus Marcellinus in his Res Gestae and more fully in Vegetius's Epitoma Rei Militaris probably written in the reign of Emperor Theodosius I (378-395 A.D.). -
Luristan Bronze Sword Blade
Late 2nd-early 1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £600 - 800 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £300
A substantial leaf-shaped blade with raised midrib extending to a short tang, ribbed fullers with curved ends extending to the shoulders. 883 grams total including stand, sword: 44 cm
From London Mayfair gallery, 1990s.
Luristan was hardly an ethnic or political entity, but the people of Luri had relations through warfare and trade with Sumerians, Lullubi, Assyrians, Babylonians and Elamites in a large time period, spanning from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium B.C. The ruling elites of warrior horsemen were buried in the graves with their weapons and horses which are the main sources of the Luristan bronze weapons.
