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Details
LOT 0354
Viking Age Bronze Tortoise-Type Brooch Group
9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
3 - 3 1/8 in. (140 grams total, 77-80 mm).
Comprising three shallow-domed plate brooches each with low-relief zoomorphic ornament and a narrow ledged rim; to the reverse, a small catch and T-shaped pin-lug; one with textile remains in situ. [3]
Provenance
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
Literature
Cf. Arbman, H., Birka I: Die Gräber, Uppsala, 1940, pl.61.
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LOT 0354
Viking Age Bronze Tortoise-Type Brooch Group
Estimate £1,000 - 1,400€1,160 - 1,620 (for guidance only)$1,350 - 1,890 (for guidance only)
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Pendants in the form of miniature buckets have been found in a number of pagan Anglo-Saxon and Viking contexts and are generally made of bronze or iron, with gold examples being rare; three gold examples were found with the hoard from Hoen, Norway. Bronze bucket amulets have been found at Driffield in Yorkshire, and Vimose bog in Denmark, among other places. In form they represent wooden buckets bound with bronze or iron bands which have been found in Anglo-Saxon and Viking graves and are believed to have held mead or ale and were used to replenish the cups from which warriors drank. As amulets they probably represent the ecstatic power of alcoholic drink and the role of women as the dispensers of these precious beverages.
