Details

LOT 0314

Viking Age Sword with Engraved Mammen Style Hilt

8TH-9TH CENTURY A.D.

35 1/2 in. (955 grams, 90.5 cm).

Pattern-welded, double-edged tapering blade with a tapering tang; the boat-shaped lower guard, pommel, and upper guard decorated in Mammen Style with silver inlay; professionally conserved. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From the Bornhauser collections.
Ex A. Green private collection.
Ex Balticum.
with Army of Tennessee Relics, Knoxville, USA.

Accompanied by an Army of Tennessee certificate of authenticity dated 5th October 2017.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12021-214091.

Published

Exhibited at Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 3rd February-9th March 2024; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefact on display.

Literature

Cf. Lorange, A.L., Den Yngre Jernalders Svaerd, Bergen, 1889, pls.I,VI; Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919, fig.52; Oakeshott, E., The Archaeology of Weapons, Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry, Woodbridge, 1960 (1999); Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Woodbridge, 2002, sword from National Museum of Ireland, pp.28-29.

Footnotes

This beautiful Viking sword (probably a river find) shows engraved decoration in Mammen style (700-800 A.D.) and is an early type A according to the Petersen’s typology and classification. This category of swords evolved from the swords of the Vendel Period in Scandinavia, especially from the Swedish ones. Petersen originally individuated eight examples of this sword’s typology, one of the first categories of Viking swords, although these swords were also widely used in the Carolingian Empire.