Details

LOT 0477

Viking Double-Edged Sword

9TH CENTURY AD

35" (884 grams, 89cm overall).

A hand-forged double-edge sword with gently tapering blade and broad, rounded point; the hilt fittings of Petersen's Type H with narrow (65mm) lower guard and large D-shaped pommel; the blade with deep fuller to each face, of piled construction with broad, flat-section tang; the lower guard scaphoid in plan with inlaid copper-alloy wires in parallel vertical lines; the upper guard secured to the pommel with two pins to the underside.

Provenance

From an important German collection; acquired in the 1970s. Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate.

Literature

See Peirce, I. Swords of the Viking Age, Woodbridge, 2002, p.52-55.

Footnotes

A similarly-decorated example was recovered from the River Maas near Kessel, Noord-Brabant, Holland and published in Peirce (plate V).

CONDITION