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_900x900.jpg "Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger")
_200x200.jpg "Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger")
.jpg "Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger")
LOT 1097
Medieval Iron Kidney Dagger
LATE 15TH CENTURY A.D.
18 1/8 in. (307 grams, 46 cm).
Featuring a wedge-shaped blade and a lobed handle; the hilt fitted with an iron plate bending down to form points on each side of the blade, pommel with a discoid brass plate decorated with an incised flower motif.
ProvenanceAcquired 1960s-1990s.
Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.
Cf. Tarassuk, L. & Blair, C., Complete Encyclopaedia of Arms & Weapons, London, 1982, p.156, item 5, for a late 15th century version of the type.
FootnotesThe term 'ballock dagger' was used in medieval times to describe a dagger with a grip bearing a considerable resemblance to a phallic symbol. It was also called 'kidney dagger' during the Victorian times. The constant characteristic is the presence of two roundish and symmetrical bulbs at the guard, with the grip itself emerging upward between them and flaring slightly towards the top, sometimes being surmounted by a cap.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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Greek Iron Arrowhead
4th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £156
Barbed and tanged type with flared shoulder. 15.5 grams, 10.2 cm
UK private collection, 1990s. From the collection of an London antiquarian. -
Chinese Bronze Military Flag or Banner Finial
Circa 5th-3rd century B.C. or laterSold for (Inc. bp): £468
Composed of a socketted blade divided into six sections with sharp grooves, the shaft with four circumferential bands. 873 grams, 34 cm
Ex old English collection. London art market, pre 2000. Property of a London, UK, gentleman.
The Chinese, having adopted the use of chariot from the west, judging by the monuments and literature used it primarily for archery combat, as evidenced by the absence of spearheads in chariot burials of the Yin Kingdom. But already from the early Zhou Dynasty chariot warriors used a spear. Massive Yin spears were the weapon of dense infantry formations. The shape of our specimen, probably used as standard finial, recalls that of a spear from Zhongzhoulu, Luoyang, Prov. Henan, dated at the 5th-4th centuries B.C., and of two spears from the Zheng fortress of Xinzheng Country, dated to the 4th-3rd century B.C. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Flat Axe
2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £117
Flat in cross-section with a convex cutting edge and rounded butt. 178 grams, 20.3 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
This flat axe belongs to Type 1, sub-type a.4 of the Çetin-Bilgi classification of flat axes. They have concave-sided blade, rectangular in section, a splayed cutting edge and a narrow butt. The first examples of axe-type weapons appear in the last phase of the Late Chalcolithic Age in the Middle East and Anatolia.
