Details

LOT 0260

Viking Iron Sword with Inlaid Hilt

8TH-10TH CENTURY A.D.

35 1/2 in. (1.05 kg, 90 cm).

Comprising a double-edged tapering blade showing shallow fullers and wide cutting edges; boat-shaped lower guard with inlaid vertical copper bands; the upper guard decorated in similar fashion; five-lobed pommel with deep grooves between the lobes, each lobe inlaid with copper bands.

Provenance

Acquired 1990s-early 2000s.
East Anglian private collection.

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.11592-199910.

Literature

See Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919; Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002.

Footnotes

It is the decoration and the structure of the sword that suggest classifying it as a type H of Petersen, rather than type R which usually presents a five-lobed pommel. The copper markings are artistically consistent with archaeological examples of decorative work of Viking swords, notably with the one in Suomen Kansallismuseo, Helsinki, published by Peirce (2002, pp.6off.). The decoration, which here takes the form of vertical copper lines, is striped as on the Helsinki specimen.