North-Western Persian Type Bronze Blade

Comprising: axehead with sturdy square-section neck, T-shaped blade, hammer-face to rear of the socket; barbed spearhead with split socket; long single-edged knife with stub tang. 1.37 kg total, 16.5-43 cm



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

Comprising a globular flail head with large suspension loop above and sixteen spiked projections to the sides. 829 grams, 89 mm



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

The medieval flail was a weapon mainly used in Eastern Europe, probably created among the Steppe people and used by the Mongols, adopted by the Slavic people under the name of kisten. Such a weapon probably saw little use in Western Europe, where it is first represented in the 14th century in a fresco depicting the battle of Nineveh painted by Piero della Francesca, as a chain with three maceheads. In the poem Le Chevalier Délibéré written by Olivier de la Marche and published in 1486, there is an engraving representing a knight carrying a rather simple morning star with asymmetrically mounted quills and a single-ball flail of quills. It is thought that in the Middle Ages the nailed mace in general was used to break through and dismantle the armour of enemies who were then 'finished' with swords or daggers.

An Eastern Roman spathion with long, double-edged parallel blade, a tapering, medium length tang, retaining possible remains of the fabrica mark in the middle, near the rivet hole for the handle. 698 grams, 81cm



Acquired 1970-1980. From the collection of a Surrey gentleman.