Delicately moulded brooch with low-relief detailing, cells to accept enamel fill; S-curved pin in situ, the broad end wound around the shank. 6.12 grams, 41.6 mm

Found Norfolk, Southern England.
Acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s.
From an East Anglian private collection.

Accompanied by an old Norfolk Castle Museum record slip.

Openwork loop with stud to the upper face and small loop below, three attachment pegs to the underside, two pairs of discoid cells with enamel fill. 34.9 grams, 64 mm

Found Lincolnshire, UK, early 2000s.
Acquired from the Cumberland Coin Fair, UK, early 2000s.
Property of a Stowmarket, UK, gentleman.

Cf. Jope, E.M., Early Celtic Art in the British Isles, no & pl.271, a-h.

Triangular flange on each side rising from the butt to the stop bar; below the septum, a hollow to each face; narrow body expanding to a wide triangular blade with curved edge and raised median rib. 443 grams, 17 cm

Found Spridlington, Lincolnshire, UK.

See Evans, J., The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1881, pp.76-84, and figs.56-68, for similar types.

Comprising a domed loop with running spiral ornament to the outer face; tongue with ribbed panel to the rear, beast-head finial curved over the forward edge; plate with square panel, cell to each corner and one to the centre with inset cabochon garnets, profile eagle-head to the rear edge with cabochon garnet eye. 105 grams, 13.3 cmFine condition.

Previously in a collection formed between 1990-2000.
From an East London collection.
Property of an important West London collector.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11885-206926.

Cf. Menghin, W., The Merovingian Period. Europe Without Borders, Berlin, 2007, item I.33.6.

Composed of a flat-section hoop and circular bezel bearing incuse stylised image of a horse-drawn chariot occupied by driver. 3.81 grams, 18.18 mm overall, 15.90 mm internal diameter (approximate size British J, USA 4 3/4, Europe 8.69, Japan 8)

From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

Cf. Chadour, A.B., Rings. The Alice and Louis Koch Collection, volume I, Leeds, 1994, item 392, for the type of ring and 157, for the iconographic model.

The ring is of Germanic production that imitates the Roman iconography of emperors or divinities driving a horse-drawn chariot. It is one of the many Germanic goldsmith's products that fall within the so-called 'imitatio barbarica' and which characterise the Nordic goldwork in the Dark Ages.

Openwork hollow hexagonal earrings, four faces with raised diamond-shaped collars, some with glass inlay remaining, with a plain hoop, one half restored; 2.6cm diam of hoop, each ink marked '1576' on one face; on a pyramidal box mount, with typed collection notes. 43.7 grams total, 83 mm including stand

Ex Richard Hattatt collection.
With note on the reverse of the mount stating they have been verified by the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum.

Cf. Reynolds Brown, K. et al., From Attila to Charlemagne. Arts of the Early Medieval Period in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2000, item 10.7.

A slightly bent irregular bar of hacked gold with rectangular cross-section, showing evidence of compression and fracture to each end, some subtle transverse lines on both of the main surfaces. 14.43 grams, 51 mm

Found whilst searching with a metal detector on 1st May 2022 on a Romano-British site in Cambridgeshire, UK, by Trevor Singleton.

Accompanied by a handwritten letter from the finder.
Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.CAM-D819F0 and workflow review page where it states: 'There is evidence that the bar fragment has been cut from both ends, suggesting Early Medieval (Viking Period) parallels.'

See Hårdh, B., Silver in the Viking Age. A Regional-Economic Study, Acta Archaeologica Lundensia no.25, Stockholm, 1996; West, S. A., Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Finds From Suffolk, East Anglian Archaeology 84, Ipswich, 1998; Blackburn, M., Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles, London, 2011; Fern, C. Dickinson, T. & Webster, L., The Staffordshire Hoard: an Anglo-Saxon Treasure, London, 2019, items 657, 672, 673.

This ingot was declared under the Treasure Act and subsequently determined by the British Museum to be of 'undiagnostic' date and therefore returned to the finder. Trevor Singleton maintains that it was recovered from a known Romano-British site, while in neighbouring fields Early Medieval (Late Saxon & Viking) items have been recovered and logged with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Ingots of gold and silver were regularly produced in the Early Medieval period when trade took place between monetised economies (Anglo-Saxon England, Francia, Frisia) and their non-monetised neighbours in southern Scandinavia (West, 1998; Blackburn, 2011). Ingots were a convenient means of storing wealth which could be converted into display items (weapon fittings, clothing fasteners, tableware) or used to gild silver and bronze items (Hårdh, 1996).

Composed of a slender, decoratively twisted penannular hoop with expanded collared terminals. 9.51 grams, 61 mm

From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

Cast openwork interlaced cross design with lozenge in centre, ribbed suspension loop. 12.06 grams, 46 mm high

Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.

Cast with suspension loop, two beasts interlaced crossing in centre with heads with open mouths at 11 and 1 o'clock, with remains of gilding. 19.83 grams, 49 mm high

Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.

In repoussé, complete with an applied suspension loop and central dome. 7.46 grams, 53 mm

From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

Cf. The British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, record id. BERK-97605A, for similar.

Of Riddarholmen type (also widespread in the historical Rus region), with integral loop; the openwork plaque with banded border and four panels, internal stylised zoomorph with hatched panel to the hip, gripping three-fingered hands to the body and border, two detailed feet, clearly visible facing mask below the loop with pellet eyes. 13.3 grams, 40 mm

From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

Cf. Korshyn, V.E., Yazicheskiye Priveski Drevniye Rusi X-XIV Vekov, Moscow, 2013, items K.2.01-03.