CIRCA 50-20 B.C.

Details

A CELTIC SILVER SCABBARD PLATE
CIRCA 50-20 B.C.
27 ½ in. (69.8 cm.) long

Provenance

Axel Guttmann (1944-2001), Berlin, acquired in Munich, 1996.
The Axel Guttmann Collection of Ancient Arms and Armour, Part 2, Christie's, London, 28 April 2004, lot 126.
Private Collection, Germany, acquired from the above.
with Ariadne Galleries, New York, 2015 (Art and Adornment: Treasures of Combat, no. 22).
Christian Levett, London, acquired from the above on behalf of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2016.

Exhibited

Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2018-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA846).

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Hannah Fox Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

hsolomon@christies.com +1 212 636 2256

Lot Essay

Fabricated of silver sheet, this plate once adorned a scabbard, with the body likely in iron. The upper portion is ornamented with section of openwork sliver overlay in the opus interrasile technique consisting of connected hooks, wheels, and tall arches.

Related scabbard plates with openwork ornament, most usually in bronze, have been excavated at Goeblingen-Nospelt, Luxembourg (see no. 147 in H. Löhr, et al., Trier: Augustusstadt der Treverer and no. 312 in R. and V. Megaw, Celtic Art: From its Beginnings to the Book of Kells). Creases along its length may indicate that the now-missing sword and scabbard were ritually bent before being dedicated at a sanctuary (for other examples of ritually bent swords, see pp. 364-365 in V. Kruta, et al., The Celts).

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