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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]
ProvenanceFrom 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.
Exhibited at Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 3rd February-9th March 2024; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefact on display.
LiteratureCf. 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.
FootnotesThis 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.
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Viking Iron Bearded Axehead
Circa 9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £208
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From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Tanged Spearhead
3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £124
With long blade, shallow midrib, rectangular-section tang; engraved, reinforced shaft, and squared shoulders. 423 grams, 34.5 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
According to Gernez, this spear belongs to the group of tripartite spears with bulging biconcave ogival blade, a marked stop and tang, usually curved. The tomb KCG 14 of Carchemish, yielded a similar example, in association with spears and ceramic dated from the second half of the 3rd millennium. A very similar spear comes from a tomb at Tell Mozan. A larger example with a decoration of rings in relief on the stem belongs to the λ deposit of Byblos. Another spear, of similar form, presents a decoration of vertical lines on the stem. It was found in the tomb of the Lord of the Caprids at Ebla, making it the most recent in the series (around 1750 B.C.). -
Bactrian Bronze Eye Axehead
3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £300 - 400 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £150
Fan-shaped blade; an apotropaic eye in relief to each side of the socket; wing-shaped extension to the rear. 327 grams, 16 cm
From an old London, UK, collection. Ex London, UK, gallery.
Most of these axes are believed to have originated in Bactria, but some objects come from well documented contexts in Margiane (Gonur), Lut (Shahdad) and Kermanshah (Khinaman). According to Gernez they were made for ceremonial use.
