Very Large Scandinavian Viking Silver Tau Cross Pendant

10TH-12TH CENTURY A.D.

2 3/4 in. (23.1 grams, 71 mm).

Hollow-formed type with barrel-shaped suspension bar, narrow neck, trefoil plaque with two lateral piercings; applied filigree knotwork to the plaque and suspension bar, domed 'eyes' and nose at the junction with the plaque; plain reverse. [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.13299-256161.

Literature

Cf. Franceschi, G., Jorn, A. & Magnus, B., Mennesker, Guder og Masker i Nordisk Jernalderkunst, vol.1, Borgen, 2005, item 227, for type; cf. for similar specimens the hoard of ten filigree pendants from Neuendorf; the seven filigree cross pendants of Scandinavian style from the hoard of Mikhailovski monastery, Kiev, in Williams, G., Pentz, P., Wemhoff, M., Vikings life and legend, London, 2014, p.132.

Footnotes

Although the ornament is decorated with a traditional double-braid band, it no longer features animal ornamentation, but intertwined rings made of multi-row filigree wire. The shape of the Tau cross also finds parallels with the patrices of the Busdorf hoard (Schleswig-Holstein).

CONDITION

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LOT 0295