Anglo-Scandinavian Viking Gilt Bronze Urnes Stirrup Apex Mount

Miniature drum-shaped vessel with strap handle, extensive filigree decoration on the body. 2.77 grams, 21 mm



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

Pendants in the form of miniature buckets have been found in a number of pagan Anglo-Saxon and Viking contexts and are generally made of bronze or iron, with gold examples being rare; three gold examples were found with the hoard from Hoen, Norway. Bronze bucket amulets have been found at Driffield in Yorkshire, and Vimose bog in Denmark, among other places. In form they represent wooden buckets bound with bronze or iron bands which have been found in Anglo-Saxon and Viking graves and are believed to have held mead or ale and were used to replenish the cups from which warriors drank. As amulets they probably represent the ecstatic power of alcoholic drink and the role of women as the dispensers of these precious beverages.

With a broad domed profile, a repeated pattern of punched square-with-pellet motif, and a band of pellets at the equator. 50 grams, 71 mm



From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

Teardrop-shaped and slightly domed with trefoil loop at the apex and two radiating lugs at the lower corners; low-relief design of a dense interlaced panel with beast-head in plan at the apex; pierced ledge to reverse. 35.2 grams, 62 mm



Found Norfolk, UK.