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LOT 1660
Late Anglo-Scandinavian Viking Bronze Casket Key
10TH-13TH CENTURY A.D.
2 1/8 in. (7.67 grams, 54 mm).
For a slide lock, the shaft with an open circular projection to one end and a larger openwork rectangular projection to the other end terminating with a T-shaped extension. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceAcquired on the UK art market circa 2005.
From an old North Country, UK, collection.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Hammond, Aaron Benet's Artefacts of England & the United Kingdom, Fourth edition, Coggeshall, 2021, p.526, nos.V17-0102, V17-0103, & V17-0104.
FootnotesThere is much discussion among the scholars on such slide keys, known popularly as 'Viking' keys. According to Kevin Leahy '...they do look something like the keys that come from Viking graves and from Viking sites but I have never seen an example that had the 'T' shaped extension for the end of the bit and I can't actually see how this would have functioned in a slide lock.' An iron example was found at Coppergate in York, in a 12th to 13th century context.
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AUCTIONS:
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Anglo-Scandinavian Viking Bronze Interlaced Beast Mount
11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £416
With openwork Urnes Style design of coiled serpent with head at the lower edge, two upper coils forming the attachment loops. 2.92 grams, 22 mm
Found Doncaster, UK. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
The style of the piece is very reminiscent of a bronze Urnes Style brooch in the Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen published in Wilson, D.M. and Klindt-Jensen, O. Viking Art, London, 1968, pl.LXXIII (f). The swept curves of the tendrils which enmesh the serpent's body are a noted feature of the style, which is found also in the great Norwegian stave churches and elsewhere. -
Scandinavian Viking 'Hoard' of Hacked Gold and Silver with Weights, Scales and Pans
9th-10th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,105
Comprising: articulated arms for a scale balance with spike gnomon; two hemispherical bowls each with suspension holes at the rim; three trade weights each with a struck motif to one faces; group of complete and cut-half silver dirham coins; six cut fragments of silver ingot; small gold ingot fragment. 284 grams total, 1-20 cm
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
Viking Period Bronze Twisted Neck Torc with Looped Terminals
9th-12th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £312
Formed of two twisted thick rods with overlapping arms and loop terminals. 350 grams, 25 cm
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
