Viking Age Bronze Twisted Bar Bracelet

With a penannular slender body and striated terminals with beast-head finials. 1.84 grams, 24.13 mm



From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s.

A glazed hollow ceramic egg with a hole to the underside and a smaller pellet inside; regular, dragged yellow lines to the outer face. 30.4 grams, 41 mm



From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

These eggs are usually assigned to Kievan Rus workmanship, but in fact, they were found in a wider geographical area. They are thought to represent an early form of a popular Orthodox tradition of painted eggs, or 'pysanka', popular during the Easter holiday as a symbol of resurrection. However, the symbolism may be pre-Christian, with a connection to an idea of a Cosmic Egg, from which the world was created.

Comprising: a restrung headdress formed as ten square panels, each with vertical bands of pellets framing four columns of ring-and-dot ornament, with interstitial groups of three tubular spacer beads with corrugated profile; two dress-pins each with a lobed cruciform head and appliqué panel, pierced lug at the top of the shank to mount a transverse cocked-hat panel with three pendant chains of double links, faced with an appliqué tinned sheet with stamped motifs of hatched triangles, ring-and-dot and billets to the border; bow-brooch with transverse spring and header with knop finials ornamented with beaded collars, stepped bow with coiled wire collar and semicircular bar with notched upper face, trapezoidal footplate with catch and pin to reverse; each mounted on a custom-made stand. 2.3 kg total, crown: 36 cm high including stand, brooches: 15-22.5 cm high including stand



Acquired on the UK art market, 1995-2000s. Private collection, London. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13242-252258.