Napoleonic Infantry Officer's Sabre

With a short socketted shaft, the plain rectangular blade broadening towards the cutting edge; side holes on the shaft. 446 grams, 11.4 cm



Ex Abelita family collection, 1980s-2000s.

Unadorned weapons, especially axes, adzes, and picks, were made by Luristan craftsmen using simple clay or stone bivalve moulds, into which a core was inserted to form the socket for the shaft. Typically, the metallic composition consisted of a combination of arsenical bronze and copper, together with a small percentage of lead.

Double-edged cutting sword of Petersen type A with a finely tapering blade, showing pattern-welding; upper and lower guards with strongly curved sides; the cross-guard boat-shaped with an acute tapering tang; the pommel attached with two nails to the original boat-shaped upper guard. 809 grams, 85.5 cm



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. 13064-249347.

Petersen originally individuated eight examples of this sword’s typology, one of the first categories of Viking swords, although these swords were also widely used in the Carolingian Empire and widespread among the Italic population as well (frescoes from the Necropolis of S.Andrea Priu, Sardegna, 8th or 9th century AD), where specimens are still attested in the 10th century A.D (D’Amato-Salimbeti, 2020, p.23). The evenly wide, three-sided pommel, narrower than the guard, was the most characteristic element of such swords, and in some cases it was divided into three segments, or even seven segments (swords from Neri, Opstryn s., Stryn, Nordfjord). Thes tend to be confused with the similar pommels of the swords of H typology (Petersen, 1919, pp.89ff.), but in these latter swords the guards are wider and with an elliptical cross-section.

With long slender leaf-shaped blade and short tubular socket. 550 grams, 48.1 cm



Acquired on the German art market. Private collection, Germany. Ex Axel Guttmann collection and acquired through Hermann Historica in 2010. Kept in the UK from 2016.