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LOT 1091
Western Asiatic Bronze Dagger Blade
EARLY 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
13 in. (61 grams, 33 cm).
With a narrow tapering blade, slightly enlarged in the guard area and narrowing again towards the 'ear' pommel.
ProvenanceAcquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
See Christie's, Axel Guttmann collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, Part 2, London, South Kensington, Wednesday 28 April 2004, for a similar dagger (lot 21, p.22).
FootnotesThe techniques used by Luristan craftsmen to create bronze weapons were highly sophisticated. They used a wide variety of surface finishes: repoussé work, chasing and engraving. The fact that the mountains of Luristan were particularly rich in copper and tin, both required for making bronze, was a significant advantage to the metalworking industry. The weapons produced developed into a plethora of different forms in the 2nd millennium B.C. to at least 800 B.C. These objects include axes and adzes, pick axes, daggers and dirks, spears, swords, helmets and shields. Weapons were usually cast, but armour parts were also made by the hammering process.
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AUCTIONS:
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Luristan Sar-e Gorz Luristan Bronze Macehead
14th-13th century B.C.Estimate: £200 - 300 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £111
With plain globular body, extended to a small raised ring encircling the top of the mace-head, circular short shaft expanding to a circular flat base. 279 grams, 70 mm high
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
Caucasian stone and bronze maces were distinguished by modestly finished, clean processed and predominantly close-to-ball shapes (with a variety of surface finishing, ranging from the smooth, ribbed, lobular forms to the rounded with protrusions and spikes), and the Western Iranian maces, especially the Luristan ones, notable for the variety of different forms. Similar mace-heads, probably realised in Luristan, decorated the head of the sceptres of Assyrian kings like Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-1207 B.C.). -
Roman Pattern-Welded Iron Spatha
Circa late 4th century A.D.Estimate: £3,000 - 4,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £1,500
A section of a double-edged long sword (spatha) of Illerup-Wyhl typology; half of the blade still intact with the tang created in later times by shortening a part of the blade; narrow parallel cutting edges tapering towards the point; both sides showing pattern-welding in form of ZS stripes and torsion technique B.II.1.2. 287 grams, 54.6 cm
Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s. Acquired from the above, 2004. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11976-210915.
Dr Miks refers to the spathae of the 'lllerup-Wyhl' type I as to a large group of blades which in terms of their proportions, dimensions and shape, are probably a mixture of blades of the more classical 'Straubing-Nydam' and 'Lauriacum-Hromowka' types of long Roman swords. They are one of the most complicated category of late Roman swords and therefore difficult to clearly identify. The chosen double designation (lllerup-Wyhl) takes into account the circumstance that the blades of this category could be identified in a lighter, narrower shape, with several representatives in the concentration ‘C’ of the moor finds from lllerup Ädal (Miks, 2007, A321), while heavy and broad specimens may be visible, like the well-preserved blade from body grave 22 of a late Roman influenced grave field in Wyhl (Miks, 2007, A798). -
Western Asiatic Bronze Arrowhead Group
14th-10th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £117
Comprising ten triangular arrowheads with tangs. 203 grams total, 8.1-15 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
Some of these arrowheads seem to belong to the type V, subcategory types A and C according to the classification of Khorasani and Negahban. In the four categories of triangular bronze arrowheads from Luristan, Marlik and Northern Iran described by Negahban, subtypes A and C of type V are larger arrow heads with barbed shoulders and triangular heads. These types of arrowheads were commonly used in Anatolia and Mesopotamia from the 2nd millennium B.C., but apparently their employment began earlier in this area, where types like these occur alongside the non-barbed, predominantly ribbed and tanged types.
