Provenance:

Art Market, Netherlands.

Private Collection, Cologne, Germany, acquired in 1996.

Ariadne Galleries, New York, 2016 (Art & Adornment: Treasures of Combat, pp. 110-111, no. 32).

Ritually bent and still retaining its scabbard, this sword reflects a practice seen across Europe from the Bronze Age through the Migration Period, in which weapons were intentionally deformed before deposition. In the Celtic world, the bending of a blade is generally interpreted as a symbolic act of decommissioning, effectively “killing” the weapon and preventing its further use in the afterlife.