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Details
LOT 1640
Viking Bronze Bird Brooch
10TH-12TH CENTURY A.D.
1 1/2 in. (10.9 grams, 38 mm).
Modelled in profile with radiating tripartite crest, triangular stub wing, splayed feet, catch and pin-lugs to the reverse.
Provenance
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
Literature
Cf. Pedersen, A., ‘ Birds of Prey or Doves. Early Medieval bird-shaped brooches’ in Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1999 (2001), 2001, pp.19-66, fig.22, for similar brooch; Hammond, B., British Artefacts vol.3 - Late Saxon, Late Viking & Norman, Witham, 2013, item 1.1.3-d.
Footnotes
Bird brooches from the late Viking era have been found in Scandinavia as well in the English Danelaw, through to the early Norman era; such brooches can be dated to the 11th and even early 12th century.
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