Viking Age Silver Axe Pendant

Adorned with granule clusters to the sidewall and a granulated cross to convex base. 1.40 grams, 14 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 body hexagonal in cross-section, facetted terminals and free-running tongue, punched ring-and-dot motifs and dense panels of annulets in three zones around the body. 70 grams, 82 mm



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

Punched ring-and-dot decoration to the expanded central section, orderly striations of pecking over the rest of the body. 11.13 grams, 23.03 mm overall, 18.64 mm internal diameter (approximate size British Q, USA 8, Europe 17.49, Japan 16)



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