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LOT 1425
Viking Silver Inlaid Iron Weight
9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
1 1/2 in. (176 grams, 38 mm).
Polyhedral weight bearing Insular Style inlaid decoration in the form of serpentine creatures in tondos, on a silver inlaid background. [No Reserve]
ProvenancePrivate collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Cf. similar weights in de Wilde, R., Weights, Scales and Pawns of Ancient Civilizations, 2017, p.172; cf. also for the type, Reynolds, A., Webster, L., Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World, Studies in Honour of James Graham-Campbell, The Northern World, North Europe and Baltic c.400-1700 A.D., Peoples, Economies and Cultures, Leiden-Boston, 2013, p.303, type 6.
FootnotesThese weights were adopted by the Vikings from Middle Eastern examples and appear to have become a typical weight standard for traders. They are, in archaeology, an important form of evidence for the Viking commerce. Many of them, like those found in Ireland and of Arabic type, suggest a standardised system of weights in different areas.
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AUCTIONS:
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Western Asiatic Integral Hilted Bronze Short Sword
Late 3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £200 - 300 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £110
With a broad, lentoid-section flat blade, rounded tip, sloping sides, well marked shoulders with wide but short tang. 713 grams, 43.5 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
The sword finds similarity with a one from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. This is the most primitive form of dagger, consisting of a simple, pointed blade having slightly convex outline shoulders sloping to a short tang which has no rivets, and was probably hafted to wood with bitumen. -
Luristan Gilt-Bronze Horse Bit Terminal
13th-7th century B.C.Estimate: £150 - 200 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £75
Tubular bronze body with stepped profile, topped with an ibex head with curved horns, square-section perpendicular shank; some gilding remaining. 117 grams, 92 mm
Acquired before 1983. Ex London gallery, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
Oriental European Iron Armour Sections
10th-14th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Consisting of a square dorsal plate and a spherical shoulder protection, the dorsal plate with one of the fixing holes present. 790 grams total, 12.7-20 cm
UK private collection, acquired in 1996. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Although this is a type of armour that currently has no parallels for its dorsal plate, the spherical shoulder protection finds some comparable items with fragments of armour from the Balkans and could correspond to the melon of Eastern Roman sources of the period.
