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Home > Auctions > Starting 2nd December 2025 > Viking Age Bronze Sword Scabbard Chape Collection

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LOT 1653

Estimate
GBP (£) 600 - 800
EUR (€) 690 - 930
USD ($) 800 - 1,070

Opening Bid
£300 (EUR 347; USD 402) (‡+bp*)

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Bids: 0
VIKING AGE BRONZE SWORD SCABBARD CHAPE COLLECTION
10TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
2 - 2 3/4 in. (178 grams total, 51-70 mm).

Comprising: a long and narrow tongue-shaped type (Paulsen's Gruppe V 2A, Untergruppe C) with scooped upper edge and palmette motif to the centre, spurs to the a vertical band of reserved stylised ring-chain decoration on a pounced field, long lateral straps and a knop finial;
a heater-shaped type (Paulsen's Gruppe I 2, Untergruppe C) with central openwork panel displaying a bird in flight with the fan-shaped tail marked with radiating lines, guilloche bands to the outer sides, upper edges angled and with lobe at the apex; an elongated type (Gruppe V 1) with low-relief pointillé bands to each face and a palmette at the apex of the central spur; a long tongue-shaped type (Paulsen's Gruppe I 1) with an openwork centre and Ringerike Style bird formed with looped bands, pellets to the pinions, a triangular in plan head joined to the inner faces of the ropework border forming the upper edge of the chape, with a wolf's head at the apex and stepped knop finial; a single plaque (Gruppe V 1) from a two-part chape, long and rounded with palmate detailing to the upper edge, tendrils and scrolls to the body, pierced in two places to accept rivets. [5]

PROVENANCE:
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

LITERATURE:
See Paulsen, P., Schwertortbänder der Wikingerzeit, Stuttgart, 1953, items 23, 135, 137, 178.

FOOTNOTES:
Most of these chapes originate in Sweden or the western Baltic according to Paulsen's classification.

CONDITION
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