LOT 0276

Viking Iron Sword with Three-Lobed Pommel

10TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.

36 3/4 in. (1.07 kg, 92.5 cm).

Double-edged cutting sword of Petersen Type S or T variant with tapering blade bearing some deep battle scars; boat-shaped straight lower guard and tapering tang; boat-shaped upper guard supporting a massive three-lobed pommel with remains of silver inlay to both sides.

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 a search certificate number no.12039-216430.

Cf. the sword finds parallels in various similar Viking age specimens of variant T, published in Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919, especially the sword from Utgården, seliord, Telemark, p.151, fig.121; or types S and T in Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002, pp.106-109, specimens C16430 and C18454-C3210 & C3211; Sedov, B.B., Finno-Ugri i Balti v Epokhi Srednevekovija, Moscow, 1987, pl.CXXIII no.11.

These swords were widely used in the Baltic area, to the extent that V. Kazakevicius noticed a variation within the decoration of some Type T swords, creating a Curonian type T, which were most likely of Baltic manufacture (at least the hilt construction). The traces of silver ornaments are not sufficient to determine the type of ornamentation, but the remains are artistically consistent with archaeological examples of decorative work from the geographic region or estimated cultural point of origin, probably Eastern Scandinavia or the Baltic areas.