15th century A.D. An iron flail with hand-forged tubular socket of conical form and with open sides, D-section loop, chain with oval links and figure-of-eight connecting ring; a facetted sub-spherical head. See Sturtevant, P.B., The military flail, in Medieval Warfare, January/February 2017, vol.6, no.6, pp.50-53, for discussion; cf. Praha Historical Museum, in Various, Selective Catalogue of the Museum of Military History, Praha, 1991, p.17. 492 grams, 50 cm long (19 5/8 in.) Ex California, USA, collection formed since the late 1960s. European art market before the late 1990s. The medieval flail was a weapon mainly used in Eastern Europe, probably created among the Steppe people and used by the Mongols, adopted by the Slavic peoples under the name of Kisten. Such a weapon probably saw little use in Western Europe, where it is first represented in the 14th century in the fresco of the battle of Nineveh painted by Piero della Francesca. [No Reserve]Condition Report: Fair condition.