Pre-Viking Bronze Twisted Torc

A silver pendant formed as a miniature bucket with applied filigree bands to the strap handle and body. 2.57 grams, 24 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.

Of crescentic form and of Northern European type (also widespread in the historical Rus region), with beaded border, finely decorated integral loop, very fine granular decoration with three raised bosses. 5.97 grams, 45 mm



Acquired on the German art market before 2000. From an old Munich collection.

Of spacer type, formed as a stylised horse head with two piercings for placement between two tiers of beads. 0.41 grams, 17 mm



Acquired 1970-2010. From the collection of a late Japanese gentleman.