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A Sasanian iron sword with silver hilt and scabbard image 1
A Sasanian iron sword with silver hilt and scabbard image 2
Lot 152

A Sasanian iron sword with silver hilt and scabbard

6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £10,837.50 inc. premium

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A Sasanian iron sword with silver hilt and scabbard
Circa 6th-7th Century A.D.
The iron blade tapering to a rounded tip, surmounted by a silver hilt, the grip modelled with a vertical rib in relief and an elliptical guard, the flattened pommel with a raised central rib; the scabbard decorated on one side with six pairs of applied spirals either side of a vertical raised rib, with two P-shaped mounts secured with rivets, the backs of each with small loops for suspension from belt straps, sword 91.2cm long inc. hilt, scabbard 79.7cm long

Footnotes

Provenance:
Acquired by the Mahboubian family in the 1950s.
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 28 October 2009, lot 241.
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins (MACM), France, inv. no. MMoCA445, acquired at the above sale.

Published:
M. Junkelmann, 'Roman Militaria', in M. Merrony (ed.), Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2011, p. 266, fig. 89.

Exhibited:
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins (MACM), France, June 2011-April 2020.

For related examples, see Hofkunst van de Sassanieden, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, 1993, pp.177-179, nos. 36-39, including an example at the British Museum, London, inv. no. BM.135739/135747.

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