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LOT 1364
Pre-Viking Gold Filigree Aroma Bucket Pendant
4TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.
1/2 in. (1.19 grams, 13 mm).
Cup-shaped in sheet gold with applied filigree detailing and granule clusters. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
LiteratureSee Meaney, A., Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones, Oxford, BAR British Series 96, 1981, p.166-168, for discussion of the type.
FootnotesPendants 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.
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Viking Bronze Rider and Valkyrie Mount
Circa 9th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,600
Openwork plate brooch or mount with two pierced lugs to the reverse depicting a rider and standing figure; the horse and figures shown in profile; the rider wearing baggy trousers and a cloak or mantle, a spear carried beneath his leg, his hair worn long and knotted at the rear; the standing figure wearing a floor-length robe and holing a shield; square panel beneath the horse with a grid of nine squares. 6.3 grams, 34 mm
Found near Great Massingham, Norfolk, UK, circa 2010.
The scene depicted on the mount or brooch is often assumed to represent an armed warrior on horseback and a Valkyrie holding a shield. However, the rider's long and looped hairstyle may be typical of females of the period, and the standing figure often appears to be wearing a helmet. In a detailed discussion by Gardeła, Pentz and Price (2022), the standard interpretation is challenged since we do not know whether the scene shows humans or deities, nor whether the rider and attendant might be interpreted as an armed female being welcomed into Freyja's home of Folkvangr. Does the grid beneath the horse imply that there is a gaming-board available to the rider, a typical item of hall-based enjoyment alongside the horn which symbolises beer or mead? Or does this actually show a saddle-cloth, a prosaic piece of riding equipment? -
Viking Age Silver Axehead Pendant
Circa 9th-10th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
Composed of a slender hoop with coiled wire sleeves, suspending a free-running axehead pendant. 2.3 grams, 27 mm
Acquired 1960s-1970s. From the private collection of a Northern Ireland gentleman. -
Viking Bronze Cross Brooch with Central Turret
Circa 9th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £234
Discoid in plan with scalloped circumference, cross at centre with central dome and apex pellet, openwork 'petals' in each quarter between the arms of the cross, the upper face decorated with pricked dots; catchplate to reverse. 26 grams, 55 mm
Acquired 1990s. From an East Anglian private collection.
