Comprising: twenty-seven fittings of polygonal shape with reserved stylised vegetal forms; one belt buckle of similar shape and decoration on the preserved part of the barb; a roundel; a narrow polygonal belt-tip; attachment rivets to reverse; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [29]

PROVENANCE:
Acquired on the London art market, 1990s.
Private collection, London.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12621-234052.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Historical Museum, Moscow, The road of Varangians to Greeks and Greece (In Russian and English), Moscow, 1996, nos.232-237, 422, for similar mounts.

FOOTNOTES:
Pentagonal strap mounts decorated with schematic plant ornaments, cast in bronze, characterised the population of Volga Bulgars, often in commercial relations with the Viking world. A belt-set with pentagonal and rectangular mounts decorated with plant ornaments, along with its strap end and buckle, were excavated by V.D. Sokolov in Slavic-Scandinavian graves in Russian territory.