Details

LOT 1653

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.