Viking Age Traded Hacked Gold Bar Section

Most of penannular form with decorative elements, including pierced terminals, expanded panels, faux-twisting and zoomorphic terminals. 120 grams total, 41-79 mm



Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a Ruislip, UK, gentleman, by inheritance.

Scales with triple-ring chains, distributor hubs and three chains to each dish, voided handle and gnomon; case formed as two hemispheres with securing clasps to the rim; set of nine bronze barrel-shaped trade weights with punched detailing and identification marks to the flat faces; five silver dirhem coins and thirteen cut halves; two fragments of sheet gold, one with applied filigree tendrils; three hacked pieces of D-section ingot; a silver terminal with beast-head and three convergent bands; two beast-head terminals for a bracelet; six pieces of hacked silver ornament; supplied with a custom-made stand. 1 kg total, 0.9-33 cm



From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

Openwork plate brooch or mount with two pierced lugs to the reverse depicting a rider and standing figure; the horse and figures shown in profile; the rider wearing baggy trousers and a cloak or mantle, a spear carried beneath his leg, his hair worn long and knotted at the rear; the standing figure wearing a floor-length robe and holing a shield; square panel beneath the horse with a grid of nine squares. 6.3 grams, 34 mm



Found near Great Massingham, Norfolk, UK, circa 2010.

The scene depicted on the mount or brooch is often assumed to represent an armed warrior on horseback and a Valkyrie holding a shield. However, the rider's long and looped hairstyle may be typical of females of the period, and the standing figure often appears to be wearing a helmet. In a detailed discussion by Gardeła, Pentz and Price (2022), the standard interpretation is challenged since we do not know whether the scene shows humans or deities, nor whether the rider and attendant might be interpreted as an armed female being welcomed into Freyja's home of Folkvangr. Does the grid beneath the horse imply that there is a gaming-board available to the rider, a typical item of hall-based enjoyment alongside the horn which symbolises beer or mead? Or does this actually show a saddle-cloth, a prosaic piece of riding equipment?