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Details
LOT 1351
Viking Age Bronze Knife Handle
10TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
4 in. (58 grams, 10.3 cm).
With tubular bronze handle and low-relief interlaced geometric designs. [No Reserve]
Provenance
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
Literature
Cf. Sedov, B.B., Finno-Ugri i Balti v Epokhi Srednevekovija, Moscow, 1987, pl.XII, item 11.
Footnotes
Ornamented bronze knife handles became an integral part of medieval culture also in Finno-Ugric lands. The blades of the knives were in iron, with bronze handles, and had an oval cross-section slightly expanding upwards. In a certain number of female burials, knives were found in sheaths with a bronze lamellar lining, decorated with complex floral ornamentation.
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