LOT 0298

Merovingian Iron Pattern-Welded Sword

CIRCA 6TH CENTURY A.D.

34 in. (694 grams, 86.5 cm).

A double-edged spatha with a lentoid parallel-sided blade and pointed tip; evidence of battle nicks on both cutting edges; long tang and traces of wooden scabbard on the blade; signs of damask pattern running along the length of the blade, especially on the upper part; cleaned and conserved.

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.12919-245174.

Cf. Menghin, W., Das Schwert im Frühen Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 1983, nos.60,67-70; Lebedinski, I., Armes et guerriers Barbares au temps des grandes invasions IVème au Vième siècle après J.C., Paris, 2001, pp.126-127; Strassmeir, A., Das Frankische Heer der Merowingerzeit, Berlin, 2019, II, p.27.

Usually the term ‘damascened’ is only used for blades, describing the way in which their individual rods are forged to create a desired pattern effect that remained visible on the surfaces of the finished product (technique B.II.1.2.). The shape and regularity of the pattern was essentially dependent on the number and nature of the individual rods and on the skills of the blacksmith. The scholars differentiate on this basis more or less careful and complicated variants (e.g. striped, diamond, herringbone, angular, rosette, mosaic, etc.), in which the individual rods from different iron lamellae, which are parallel or twisted (torsion pattern-welding), were built up often in connection with each other (technique B.II.1.2.1-2). Combining striped rods that were partially straight and partially twisted - clockwise or counter-clockwise - allowed the formation of a very decorative blade.