Medieval Lozenge-Shaped Iron Arrowhead

The hilt with conical openwork hollow-cast pommel, grip decorated with horizontal grooves and twisted zig-zag pattern, crescentic guard decorated with waves, long blade with ridged mid-grip. 613 grams, 58.5 cm



Kuizenga collection, the Netherlands, acquired in Utrecht 21 December 1977. with Bonhams, London, 7 December 2023, no.154.

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.

Piriform body with vertical ribs, tiered collar, domed filler-hole, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 435 grams, 16.5 cm



From a specialist collection of militaria, London, UK, collected 1990s onwards.

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.

Comprising an ovoid body with a rectangular void to accept a strap; the lower section broad with a rib to the underside, the upper flat in section with silver inlay in geometric forms to one face. 244 grams, 16 cm



From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.