LOT 0521

Scandinavian Viking Sword with Elaborate Hilt

11TH CENTURY AD

39" (6.0 kg, 99cm including stand).

An iron sword of East Scandinavian or Baltic type with ornate hilt components; the two-edged blade gently tapering (43mm at the widest) with narrow median fuller to both faces, rounded point; the trapezoidal lower guard with narrow recurved finials formed as serpentine heads, one face with Ringerike style knotwork, the other with facing mask above entwined serpents with bead and billet detailing; broad flat-section tang and five-lobed pommel, upper guard with running zigzag design; mounted on a custom-made stand.

From the family collection of a London gentleman; formed in the late 1940s-1950s; thence by descent. Accompanied by a report of metallurgic analytical report number 120731/579, written by Metallurgist Dr. Brian Gilmour of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford.

See Paulsen, P. Schwertortbänder der Wikingerzeit, Stuttgart, 1953, fig.159 for similar combination of guard and pommel.