Viking Age Cowrie Shell Pendant Collection

Cup-shaped in sheet gold with applied filigree detailing and granule clusters. 1.19 grams, 13 mm



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

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.

The openwork body roughly triangular in plan with rounded corners, the apex formed as a facing beast head, the frame as the creature's sinuous limbs which form an interlace motif below; suspension loop above. 7.18 grams, 33 mm



Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s. Westminster collection, central London, UK.

Of penannular form, convex outer face displaying geometric compositions including vertical grooves, snaking lines and ring-and-dot motifs. 36 grams, 69 mm wide



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