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LOT 1351
Viking Age Bronze Knife Handle
10TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
4 in. (58 grams, 10.3 cm).
With tubular bronze handle and low-relief interlaced geometric designs. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
LiteratureCf. Sedov, B.B., Finno-Ugri i Balti v Epokhi Srednevekovija, Moscow, 1987, pl.XII, item 11.
FootnotesOrnamented bronze knife handles became an integral part of medieval culture also in Finno-Ugric lands. The blades of the knives were in iron, with bronze handles, and had an oval cross-section slightly expanding upwards. In a certain number of female burials, knives were found in sheaths with a bronze lamellar lining, decorated with complex floral ornamentation.
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Viking Age Bronze Implement Pendant
9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
With tear-drop plaque, pierced lug and scoop finial, low-relief geometric ornament. 10.9 grams, 93 mm
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
In the Finno-Ugrian and Eastern Viking societies the status that an individual might achieve through personal qualities, social position and wealth was enhanced by valuable clothing, finely worked jewellery made of precious metal (like chatelaine chains for women) and, for the men, weapons and horse furnishing of exceptional quality. Families and individuals visually expressed the elements of other societies and cultures that they thought were desirable through the deliberate use of foreign objects.