Details

LOT 0308

Medieval Iron Single-Handed Sword

LATE 11TH-13TH CENTURY A.D.

39 3/4 in. (1.2 kg, 1.01 m).

Double-edged tapering blade with rounded point, shallow fuller and a parallel-sided lower guard (cross style 2), the grip gently tapering, discoid pommel of type I with chamfered sides.

Provenance

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.12177-221435.

Literature

See Oakeshott, E., The sword in the Age of the Chivalry, Woodbridge, 1964 (1997); Dufty, A.R., European swords and daggers at the Tower of London, London, 1974; Oakeshott, E., Records of the Medieval Sword, Woodbridge, 1991.

Footnotes

The sword belongs to the type of ‘war swords’, although it is challenging to establish if it belongs to the type XI or type XII of Oakeshott's classification. It corresponds well with an English sword of type XI kept in the Tower Armoury (Dufty, 1974, plate 2, letter a), found in a peat bog near Newbury; but it also presents many characteristics of swords of type XII: it presents similarity to two swords excavated by Dr Jorma Leppaaho in 1950, from late Viking graves, one having a cross guard identical to our specimen and the other an identical pommel (Oakeshott, 1991, p.69, lett. V and VI); and another similar specimen is (a water find from Denmark) preserved in the Nationalmuseet of Copenhagen. In general the taper of the blade points more to the nature of the XII typology.