Viking Age Gilt Bronze Openwork Roundel with Interlaced Snakes

Tapering axehead pendant on a ring with coiled ends, triangular punched detailing. 3.75 grams, 44 mm



Acquired on the London art market in the late 1980s-1990s. From the family collection of an East London, UK, gentleman.

Suspension ring with ends wound around the shank, triangular axehead pendant. 2.21 grams, 43 mm



Property of the vendor's grandfather, thence by family descent, circa 1985. From the private collection of a New York, USA gentleman.

Tubular body with domed base and filigree handle; applied bands of filigree and braided wire to sidewall and base. 1.43 grams, 14 mm



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

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.