Viking Age Silver Bead Group

Triangular in profile with openwork Urnes Style interlace, attachment pins to lower corners (one absent). 11.2 grams, 41 mm



Found near York, UK. From an old private collection of Norfolk, UK, gentleman, formed since 1998.

The design is clearly based on the contemporary stirrup mount style with dense openwork interlace and attachment points; the item lacks the rear ledge and attachment stud of the true mounts.

The ring carinated with T-shaped spur split at the inner edge, pin curled around the shank. 37 grams, 67 mm



From N.S. Wales, Australia. From the private collection of Kenneth Machin (1936-2020), Buckinghamshire, UK; with collection no.15, 21, 30, 31; his collection of antiquities and natural history was formed since 1948; thence by descent.

Miniature drum-shaped vessel with strap handle, beaded wire bands to top and bottom of sidewall, filigree loop ornament. 2.45 grams, 21 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.