Viking Age Silver Double Axehead Pendant

With braided wire handle, applied wire bands to the rim, granulation to the sidewall and base, five cells each set with a cabochon garnet. 3.02 grams, 19 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.

Including a narrow beast-head strap-end, a military strap-end fragment, a stirrup mount and looped fitting. 49.9 grams total, 26-40 mm



Acquired since the 1970s. From the private collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.

With volute scroll terminal, raised beast-head detail with niello inlay; attachment pin through as pierced lug. 8.6 grams, 36 mm



Found Cambridgeshire, UK.