Huge British Lower Palaeolithic Flint Handaxe.
Found 1901, Surrey - England.
Ex Captain Streatfield Collection.
Buyers from the United States of America will not have any customs fees to pay. This will be arranged by us and included within the purchase price.
Circa 500,000 to 300,000 years old. Attributed to Homo Heidelbergensis
A remarkably large Handaxe with a simply stunning colourful glodsy patina.
Captain Streatfield helped to fund the early archeology excavations at Farnham. He moved to the Farnham area in the late 1800's and quickly integrated himself to the local community. Passing in the 1940's, his large collection of Paleolithic to Neolithic finds were sold at action around the time of his death. We were recently lucky enough to purchase this whole collection. Each Palaeolithic piece was noted with "Farnham 1901"
This handaxe is one of a group of 23 handaxes originally collected by Captain Gerald Streatfield.
Findspot: Farnham, Greenhill. The base of the piece is inscribed “Farnham 1901.”
Collection history: Part of the set of 23 handaxes attributed to Captain Streatfield.
Provenance: The discovery of these 23 handaxes is noted by Bury (1935, 68–69) as being on “the west side of the Tilford Road (Greenhill)” where Streatfield found them. Roe (1968, 286) includes them in his gazetteer under Farnham, Greenhill with general reference SU 850 457, citing Bury’s report. Greenhill is shown on the 1873 and 1898 OS maps as a wooded area, just north of the River Bourne, at c.110 m OD, centred on SU 850 456. This location lies on the south-eastern edge of Terrace A of the River Wey sequence.
References for context:
Bury, H. (1935). The Farnham Terraces and their sequence. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 1, 60–69.
Roe, D. (1968). A Gazetteer of British Lower & Middle Palaeolithic Sites. CBA Research Report 8.
Taylor, C. (2017). Five Palaeolithic handaxes from Farnham, with a comment on the Huband flint collection. Surrey Archaeological Collections, 100, 213–221.
The collection is noted as one of the best preserved groups of artefacts from the location. Usually the handaxes were rolled and polished from being in the water logged gravels.
Please message me if you are interested but not in the UK as an export permit will be needed. A permit can be gained in order to export which can take between 1 to 6 weeks.
Beautiful condition.
The Patina is a glossy orange, dark caramel and cream. Remains of the original cortex of the flint nodule is still remaining. The original "Captain Streatfield" label is present as well as the noted "Farnham 1901" in ink.
Length 18cm
Width 13cm
Weight 1.03kg
