La Tene I, 450-320 B.C. An iron sword and scabbard with slider; the sword with lentoid-section two-edged (785 mm long) blade, parallel-sided for 530 mm then tapering gently to a broad point; campanulate lower guard, square in section with vertical incised slots to one face; square-section tang tapering to a poppy-head terminal; the broad, slender scabbard with stepped lower end, the upper edger scooped to engage with the campanulate guard of the sword, the obverse face rolled over the edges to clasp the reverse plate; the suspension elementsprising a frame of two transverse bars clasping the front and back plates connected to vertical flared straps with a stepped slider-loop to the centre, framed by two more similar bars with vertical straps forming a hollow square in which the slider-loop sits. Cf. De Navarro, J.M., The Finds from the Site of La Tene, 1, Scabbards and the Swords Found in Them, London, 1973; Stead, I., British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards, London, 2006, item 185, for type with campanulate guard and two-part scabbard; Stead, I. et al., Iron Age and Roman Burials in Champagne, Oxford, 2006; Kieca, P. & Sobczyk, P., The Celtic Sword with Bronze Hilt Elements from Siarzewo, Niesczawamune, Kuyavian Pomeranian Voivode in?wi?towit LVII, 2018. 1.3 kg, 95 cm overall (sword: 36 3/4 in.). Acquired 1980s. Ex Ing Peter Till collection, Vienna, Austria. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is apanied by AIAD certificate no.11391-193065. The campanulate form of hilt-guard is a fashion which appeared with the La Tene culture and remained in use into the 1st century A.D. in some areas. The slider-loop amodated a narrow leather baldric which allowed the scabbard to move freely along the strap and to hangfortably at the user's hip.