Details

LOT 0363

Scandinavian Viking Silver-Gilt Trefoil Brooch with Beasts

9TH CENTURY A.D.

2 1/4 in. (21.85 grams, 57 mm).

Hollow-formed Y-shaped body with applied filigree and granulation forming three radiating beast-heads, central granule in beaded-wire collar; each end with two holes each with a beaded collar, to accept the strings; straps to the reverse with bow, with beaded-wire links, and central dished circle. [No Reserve]

Provenance

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

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12734-235601.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

Cf. The British Museum, museum number 1810,1110.3, for a broadly similar example; Beck, H. et al., Fibel und Fibeltracht, Berlin, 2000, p.194-5, for discussion of the type; Ewing, T., Viking Clothing, Stroud, 2007, plate 38; Wilson, D.M. and Klindt-Jensen, O., Viking Art, London, 1968, pl.XXXII; Smith, R.A. British Museum Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, reprinted Ipswich, 1993, p.160.

Footnotes

The trefoil type is based on a three-armed strap distributor for a sword-belt used by the Carolingian Franks, copied and re-modelled to Scandinavian taste and finally re-purposed as a female dress-ornament or brooch.