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Details
LOT 0358
Scandinavian Viking Age Silver Inlaid Iron Hilt Guard
CIRCA 10TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
2 7/8 in. (70 grams, 72 mm).
Hollow-formed with a deep curved profile; rectangular slot in the upper face for the tang; bands of applied silver ropework ornament on a sheet-silver field. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.
Literature
Cf. Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Woodbridge, 2002, p.127.
Footnotes
The guard is too narrow to have been used on a sword, but it may have been part of the hilt furniture of a high-status seax or knife. The form is approximately consistent with Petersen's Type Z of late-10th century date.
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