Viking Age Leather Belt Fragments with Tinned Bronze Heart-Shaped Mounts

Displaying stylised feather, head and beak detailing; pierced twice for attachment; hollow-formed front plate. 14.19 grams, 56 mm



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

Comprising: a quantity of dirhem and other silver coins, cut into halves, quarters and irregular fragments; a quantity of square-section and other cast bars. 275 grams total, 1.2-10.2 cm



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

Miniature drum-shaped vessel covered in filigree bobbles with strap handle. 0.78 grams, 13.52 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.