LOT 0299

Viking Iron Pattern-Welded Sword

8TH-9TH CENTURY A.D.

33 5/8 in. (809 grams, 85.5 cm).

Double-edged cutting sword of Petersen type A with a finely tapering blade, showing pattern-welding; upper and lower guards with strongly curved sides; the cross-guard boat-shaped with an acute tapering tang; the pommel attached with two nails to the original boat-shaped upper guard.

From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

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 no. 13064-249347.

Cf. Lorange, A.L., Den Yngre Jernalders Svaerd, Bergen, 1889, pl.I, fig.3a-4a, 2d, swords from Hellebust, Viks, Holden and Hevne; 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, Suffolk, 2002, pl.III (swords from Bergen Museum), pp.28-29; D’Amato, R., Salimbeti, A., The Normans in Italy, 1016-1194, Oxford, 2020.

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 and widespread among the Italic population as well (frescoes from the Necropolis of S.Andrea Priu, Sardegna, 8th or 9th century AD), where specimens are still attested in the 10th century A.D (D’Amato-Salimbeti, 2020, p.23). The evenly wide, three-sided pommel, narrower than the guard, was the most characteristic element of such swords, and in some cases it was divided into three segments, or even seven segments (swords from Neri, Opstryn s., Stryn, Nordfjord). Thes tend to be confused with the similar pommels of the swords of H typology (Petersen, 1919, pp.89ff.), but in these latter swords the guards are wider and with an elliptical cross-section.