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LOT 0325
Viking Bronze Boar's Head Brooch with Openwork Beast Motif
9TH-10TH CENTURY A.D.
2 1/8 in. (4 1/8 in.) (109 grams, 56 mm (162 grams total, 10.5 cm including stand)).
Hollow-formed with openwork decorative outer surface attached to a plain back-plate with one spring-lug and catchplate intact; the upper face divided by a heavy segmented median rib and zoomorphic ornament in the outer panels, arranged symmetrically along the rib with a similar transverse band; the corners of the wider end reinforced with vertical posts ending in heavy lobed ‘ears’; the side panels decorated with zones of interlace zoomorphic ornament and the upper-end panel with a continuation of the median rib, traces of ornamental interlace; the lower-end panel plain.
ProvenanceAcquired on the UK art market, 1995-2000s.
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.12987-246190.
Cf. Franceschi, G., Jorn, A. & Magnus, B., Mennesker, Guder og Masker i Nordisk Jernalderkunst Vol. 1, Silkeborg, 2005, figs.130-1.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0325
Viking Bronze Boar's Head Brooch with Openwork Beast Motif
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,120
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Pre-Viking Silver Filigree Bucket Pendant
4th-7th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £104
Formed as a bell-shaped container with granule detailing. 1.35 grams, 17 mm
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
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 amulet,s they probably represent the ecstatic power of alcoholic drink and the role of women as the dispensers of these precious beverages. -
Anglo-Scandinavian Viking Bronze Cat-Faced Stirrup Apex Mount
10th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £234
Substantial flat mount with loop above, mask formed with lentoid eyes and broad moustache, narrow chin; ledge to rear pierced to accept rivets. 36.1 grams, 38 mm
Found Norfolk, UK.
The face bears a strong likeness to that of the Rällinge statuette discovered in Sweden in the early 20th century and believed to represent the god Yngve-Freyr. -
Viking Age Bronze Sword Scabbard Chape Collection
10th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £715
Comprising: a long and narrow tongue-shaped type (Paulsen's Gruppe V 2A, Untergruppe C) with scooped upper edge and palmette motif to the centre, spurs to the a vertical band of reserved stylised ring-chain decoration on a pounced field, long lateral straps and a knop finial; a heater-shaped type (Paulsen's Gruppe I 2, Untergruppe C) with central openwork panel displaying a bird in flight with the fan-shaped tail marked with radiating lines, guilloche bands to the outer sides, upper edges angled and with lobe at the apex; an elongated type (Gruppe V 1) with low-relief pointillé bands to each face and a palmette at the apex of the central spur; a long tongue-shaped type (Paulsen's Gruppe I 1) with an openwork centre and Ringerike Style bird formed with looped bands, pellets to the pinions, a triangular in plan head joined to the inner faces of the ropework border forming the upper edge of the chape, with a wolf's head at the apex and stepped knop finial; a single plaque (Gruppe V 1) from a two-part chape, long and rounded with palmate detailing to the upper edge, tendrils and scrolls to the body, pierced in two places to accept rivets. 178 grams total, 51-70 mm
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
Most of these chapes originate in Sweden or the western Baltic according to Paulsen's classification.
