Viking Age Silver Axe Pendant

A copper-alloy torc with a tapering round-section body composed of decoratively twisted bars, terminals forming loops and coiled collars. 63 grams, 13 cm wide



Early 1990s London collection. Acquired on the UK art market. From a private collection, Lancashire, UK.

A silver pendant composed of a free-running sub-triangular axehead pendant with flanges to the socket, one face displaying a dot-in-ring motif at the centre of concentric zigzagging triangles; slender ring with overlapping terminals forming coiled sleeves and spiralling plaques. 1.9 grams, 33 mm



Acquired before 2000. From the collection of a European gentleman living in the UK.

A silver pendant formed as a miniature bucket with applied filigree bands to the strap handle and body, granules to the median panel of the body and at the junction with the handle. 4.28 grams, 25 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.