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Details
LOT 1731
Anglo-Scandinavian Viking Bronze Plate Brooch with Beast Facing Back
9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
1 1/4 in. (9.51 grams, 31 mm).
Disc brooch with low-relief regardant beast motif within a segmented border; catchplate and pin-lugs to the reverse.
Provenance
Found Yoxford, Suffolk, UK, circa 1980.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. West, S., A Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Finds From Suffolk, East Anglian Archaeology 84, Ipswich, 1998, plate 96(3).
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LOT 1731
Anglo-Scandinavian Viking Bronze Plate Brooch with Beast Facing Back
Estimate £150 - 200€170 - 230 (for guidance only)$200 - 270 (for guidance only)
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The original function of this rare and unusual pendant remains elusive. The use of expensive materials and the fine and detailed casting indicate that it would have been a highly prized object. The fusion of Christian and pagan religious motifs is typical of Iceland where the worship of the old gods continued into the 11th century. The Christian cross was used as a symbol of the new faith but the pendant also includes elements of pre-Christian motifs. Comparable objects appeared in an exhibition of English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, held at the Hayward Gallery, London, 5 April - 8 July 1984. The catalogue for this exhibition illustrates numerous small metal and gilded articles with similar grotesque terminals- No. 254 illustrated a late 12th century finial from a shrine, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.25 1962).
