LOT 0239

Viking Age Sword with Three-Lobed Pommel

EARLY 11TH CENTURY A.D.

35 1/2 in. (720 grams, 90 cm long).

A double-edged cutting sword of Oakeshott Type XII with inlaid hilt and tapering blade with shallow fullers; the lower guard gently curving and decorated with copper inlaid dots, upper guard and three-lobed pommel with similar decoration, traces of silver inlay to the hilt.

Acquired 1971-1972.
From the collection of the vendor's father.
Property of a London, UK, collector.

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 searcher certificate no.11575-198856.

Cf. Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919; Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002; Oakeshott, E., The sword in the age of chivalry, Woodbridge, 1998; this double-edged sword belongs to a group of swords, very similar to Viking Age Scandinavian examples, mostly found in the east of the Baltic; a very similar specimen to our sample is a contemporary sword from Leikkimäki, Kokemäki, Satakunta, Finland (Peirce, 2002, pp.138ff.).

The sword belongs to the Type XII of the Oakeshott classification (Oakeshott, 1998, pp.37ff.), the characteristics of which are a broad, flat, evenly tapering blade, generally with a good sharp point and tending to widen perceptibly below the hilt. After the publication of the Finnish specimen, Peirce, due to the inlaid inscriptions of this latter, noted a close parallel, both in style and content, with a sword in the Schweizerischen Landesmuseum in Zurich. In the expanded context including the example from Finland, Peirce was able to re-date them to the 11th century.