A Rare Viking Sword Of Petersen Type D
57
A Rare Viking Sword Of Petersen Type D
9th Century
In excavated condition, with double-edged blade with wide shallow fuller over nearly its entire length along both sides to the point, hilt comprising thick ovoidal cross-piece incised with scrolled decoration and pierced on either side with a dome-headed rivet on copper-alloy washers, flat tapering tang retaining the original ovoidal copper-alloy grip mounts above and below and with notched borders, and two-piece trilobate pommel with copper-alloy mounts en suite including small circles on each side forming eyes
73 cm. blade, 88.7 cm. overall
Sold for £27,500 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance:
    Found in 1887 in the mouth of the River Thieles, a tributary of the Neuenburgersee, Switzerland
    Boissonas Collection
    Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 25 November 1959, lot 118

    Literature:
    Jean Boissonas, Alte Waffen Aus Der Schweiz, Sammlung Charles Boissonas, 1910, p. 18, no. 107, pl. XXV
    Hoffmeyer, cat. no. 29, pp. 47, 68 and 70, figs. 9 and 13

    A related sword is preserved in the Bayerishes National Museum, Munich

Category: Arms and Armour

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Specialist - Arms and Armor