Details

LOT 1204

Viking Age Bronze Bird Brooch

10TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.

1 1/8 in. (6.06 grams, 30 mm).

Modelled facing left, stylised wing and body detailing; remains of a fitting element to reverse. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

Literature

Cf. similar bird brooch in PAS, NLM-CE3915.

Footnotes

Bird brooches from the late(r) Viking era have been found in Scandinavia as well in areas occupied and inhabited by the Vikings and Norsemen within England, in Anglo-Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon contexts. These so-called bird shaped brooches can be dated to the 11th and even early 12th century. Stylistically the brooch here cannot be categorised as a distinct 'Viking style' such as the late Urnes style, although some types of other bird shaped brooches shows us connections to the Ringerike and Urnes style. The decoration and form of the bird on the brooch here is more influenced by the development of Romanesque styles spreading from the Continent into Scandinavian art, like the style of a bird, depicted on the right corner next to the door portal of Rimsø Kirke, Jylland, completed in 1150 A.D.