Turkish Iron Dagger with Brass Hilt and Scabbard

Comprising: lower guard, lentoid in plan and slightly curved in profile with recessed underside, slot to accept the tang; upper guard, lentoid in plan with scooped long edges; pommel with large median lobe and lateral shoulders, Petersen's Type S. 520 grams total, 77-91 mm



London, UK, collection, formed in the late 1990s.

Piriform in profile with impressed motifs on the shoulder; intended to be filled with explosive liquid and a wick, and used as a hand grenade. 461 grams, 10.5 cm



From an important specialist collection, London, UK, 1990s. Accompanied by an academic paper by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato, dated 15 July 2019 and titled 'Eastern Roman Empire - Greek Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade (μεσαίον kακάβιον) 9th-11th century AD'.

Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια, where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form.

Comprising six caltrops, hand-forged with square-section spikes. 195 grams total, 85-87 mm



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

P. Žákovský has been able to classify medieval caltrops, mainly from the 13th to 15th centuries A.D., based on their morphology, into four main typologies, each with different variants. Caltrops with single-pointed spikes, whose interpretation, however, is often ambiguous, belong to type I. The other three types represent classic four-pointed caltrops, and individual types in this group differ from one another just in their cross-section.