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LOT 0340
Viking Age 'Great Beast' Weather Vane Terminal
11TH CENTURY A.D.
2 5/8 in. (84.9 grams, 66 mm).
Formed as a crouching beast modelled in the round with hollow slot to the underside; elongated head with raised lentoid eyes and ellipsoid ears, ribbed wings to the shoulders, knop tail and splayed claws to the feet; mouth open with detailed fangs.
ProvenanceFrom the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no. 200289.
See Graham-Campbell, J., Viking Art, London, 2013, items 138-140, for Ringerike style ship-vanes; for a discussion of Viking-period weather vanes and their re-use as badges of nobility in Normandy, see Engström, J. & Nykänen, P., New Interpretations of Viking Age Weathervanes, in Fornvännen, vol.91, 1996; Lindgrén, S., Viking Weather-Vane Practices in Medieval France in Fornvännen, vol.91, 1996 and Lindgrén, S., Viking Weather-Vane Practices in Medieval France in Fornvännen, vol.78, 1983.
FootnotesThe navigation techniques in use in Iron Age Northern Europe were very sophisticated, as would be expected from people bordering the Baltic, North Sea and North Atlantic where boat- and ship-building traditions have been perfected over more than a thousand years. A carved wooden panel from Bergen, Norway, shows a number of Viking longships at sea, some with weathervanes mounted on the stempost. They are mounted vertically with the beast on the outer end. Gilded bronze weathervanes appear on the roofs of medieval churches in Sweden, Norway and Finland where they are often regarded as ornamental: symbols of access to resources and craftsmanship for the important families who endowed such buildings. These weathervanes in many cases originally adorned ships and were used as part of the navigational equipment. They may have inspired the medieval Norman custom of attaching a gilded weathervane or cock to church roofs, which eventually spread to secular buildings such as castles in France and Italy where their use was restricted to certain ranks of nobility (Lindgrén, 1983).
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Viking Age Silver Disc Pendant with Cross and Trefoil Ends
9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £78
Formed using repoussé technique, punched squares tracing the outlines of the cross and central lozenge; possibly later applied suspension loop. 2.17 grams, 38 mm
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s. -
Viking Age Silver Trade Weight Group
9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
One a discoid bezel(?) with notched edge, two fragments of rectangular bar. 4.2 grams total, 6-9 mm
Acquired on the London art market, 1990s. -
Viking Age Iron Bearded Axehead
9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £546
Composed of a convex cutting edge, tapering cheeks with bearded lower edge and an oval-shaped socket with lozengiform flanges and roughly rectangular extensions to the butt, hole inside the blade. 567 grams, 15.5 cm
Acquired 1971-1972. From the collection of the vendor's father. Property of a London, UK, collector.
Iron axeheads of this typology, diffused especially in the regions of the Baltic Sea where they were imported from Scandinavia, show a sub-trapezoidal asymmetrical blade, often perforated through the centre. They are characterised by two projections spurs from the top and the bottom of the back of the shaft-hole.
