Viking Age Silver-Gilt Lobed Belt Mount

Of spacer type, formed as a stylised horse head with two piercings for placement between two tiers of beads. 0.41 grams, 17 mm



Acquired 1970-2010. From the collection of a late Japanese gentleman.

Adorned with repoussé chevrons and applied granules; replaced loop. 1.17 grams, 15 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.

Comprising two short Baltic Prussian spearheads with lentoid-section lanceolate blade, short neck and tapering circular socket with single hole for attachment pin; remains of wood inside one of the shafts. 425 grams total, 26-28 cm



Acquired 1971-1972. From the collection of the vendor's father. Property of a London, UK, collector.

Prussian horsemen, like the Lithuanian and Livonian, were ‘light - armed’, as the Prussian documents say, yet their equipment, of sword and spear, helmet and even shirt of mail, was sufficient to enable them to hold their ground against the Teutonic forces.