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Details
LOT 0319
Viking Bronze Dragon Weather Vane Finial
9TH-EARLY 11TH CENTURY A.D.
3 1/2 in. (3 5/8 in.) (104 grams total, 88 mm (92 mm including stand)).
Finial fragment for a ship's weather vane formed in the round as a stylised hybrid creature with braided mane to the arched neck, pricked ears, convex lentoid eyes and gaping mouth with stub tongue; lanceolate body, carinated in section with low-relief scrolls to the shoulders, slot below and thin plaque with lozengiform stepped tail; mounted on a custom-made stand.
Provenance
Acquired on the London art market, 1990s.
Private collection, London.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Literature
Cf. Graham-Campbell, J., Viking Art, London, 2013, items 138-140; for a discussion of Viking-period weather vanes and their re-use as badges of nobility in Normandy, see Engström, J. & Nykänen, P., New Interpretations of Viking Age Weathervanes, in Fornvännen, vol.91, 1996.
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AUCTIONS:
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