Details

LOT 0360

Viking Age Silver-Gilt Cross Pendant with Head of a Beast

11TH-12TH CENTURY A.D.

1 1/2 in. (5.4 grams, 40 mm).

In Romanesque style, cruciform with openwork cross at centre, three oval terminals and a fourth modelled as a hound's head, the beast's mouth forming the suspension loop.

Provenance

From the family collection of a Hertfordshire, UK, gentleman since the 1970s.
with Bonhams, London, Sale 17880, 7 December 2010, lot 6.

Accompanied by a copy of the online Bonhams catalogue page, and the original lot ticket.

Literature

Cf. Graham-Campbell, J. & Kidd, D., The Vikings, London, 1980, item 45, for similar silver pendant from Foss, Iceland; cf. Weidenfeld and Nicolson ed., English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, Hayward Gallery, London, 1984, 248-254; cf. TimeLine Auctions 21/2/17, lot 400, for similar.

Footnotes

The original function of this rare and unusual pendant remains elusive. The use of expensive materials and the fine and detailed casting indicate that it would have been a highly prized object. The fusion of Christian and pagan religious motifs is typical of Iceland where the worship of the old gods continued into the 11th century. The Christian cross was used as a symbol of the new faith but the pendant also includes elements of pre-Christian ideas.
Comparable objects appeared in an exhibition of English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, held at the Hayward Gallery, London, 5 April - 8 July 1984. The catalogue for this exhibition illustrates numerous small metal and gilded articles with similar grotesque terminals- No. 254 illustrated a late 12th century finial from a shrine, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.25 1962).