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Details
LOT 1409
Viking Age Bronze Disc Brooch with Beast Facing Back
9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
1 in. (9.17 grams, 26.61 mm).
Composed of a flat-section discoid body with pelletted border, low-relief motif of an advancing beast in regardant pose, tail curled beneath the body, the mouth open; pin-lug and catchplate to the reverse; Baltic workmanship.
Provenance
Ex property of a Dutch collector before 2014.
From the collection of a North American gentleman
Literature
Cf. Wilson, D.M., Catalogue of Antiquities of the Later Saxon Period, Volume I: Anglo-Saxon Metalwork 700-1100 in the British Museum, London, 1964, pl.XI, item 8.
Footnotes
The brooch is a later Scandinavian copy of a 9th century Anglo-Saxon brooch type with a regardant horse. The present example has a more dragon-like beast in similar pose with serpentine head and extended tongue.
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