LOT 0323

Migration Period Iron Sword with Jewelled Hilt

5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

33 in. (954 grams, 84.5 cm).

Comprising: a spatha-type two-edged tapering blade, lentoid in section with sloped shoulders and short tang pierced by an attachment rivet for the grip; traces to both faces of the blade of wooden fibre from the scabbard; edges lightly notched but substantially complete; the lower guard rectangular in plan and scaphoid in section with inset garnet cloisons, triangular along the lower row and heart-shaped above, rectangular at the top, with small rectangular slivers at each end; accompanied by the upper roundel of the pommel, set with four garnet cloisons.

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 no. 12357-225921.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Cf. Menghin, W., Das Schwert im Frühen Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 1983, p.335, for cloisonné on guard; Zasetskaïa, I.P., Kul’tura Kotchovnikov iujnorusskikh stepeï v gunnskuïu epokhu (Culture of the nomads of the southern Russian steppes in the Hun Era), Saint Petersburg, 1994; Lebedinski, I., Armes et guerriers Barbares au temps des grandes invasions IVème au Vième siècle après J.C., Paris, 2001, pp.117ff., swords from Loutchistoïé, Novohryhorivka, Bátaszék, Jakuszowice, Szirmabesényo, Ártánd, Horgos; Miks, C., Studien zur Römischen Schwertbewaffnung in der Kaiserzeit, I-II Banden, Rahden, 2007; Kazanski, M.M., Barbarians at the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire (in Russian), Simferopol, 2024, figs.7, 12, pp.20, 23, p.31, pl.36, for similar cross-guards.

These ‘ceremonial’ swords (in reality widely used in battle) with an inlaid guard are, according to Kazanski, Late Roman in origin. The cloisonné decoration was probably linked with the production of particularly ornamented swords in the ateliers of the Roman capital of Constantinople. This typology of weapon was not only produced as a gift for foreign chiefs allied to the empire, but it was also adopted by the Imperial army, and reserved for the Imperial officers, who were often of Germanic or Asiatic origin.