Viking Age Silver Pendant with Beads

Comprising: plain rod coiled to form a finger ring; penannular hoop with coiled rod extensions; Baltic types. 28.2 grams total, 20-25 mm



Acquired on the European art market since the early 2000s. From the private Northern Ireland collection of R.M.

Openwork interlace plaque with Urnes Style stag and serpent, attachment points at outer edge. 14 grams, 39 mm



Found Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, UK. From an old private collection of Norfolk, UK, gentleman, formed since 1998. Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.NMS-E92C94.

The motif of the stag and the serpents is associated especially with Urnes Style objects.

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.