Viking Bronze Strap End with Beast Facing Back

With medial band of pellets between shallow channels. 1.64 grams, 17.62 mm overall, 16.17 mm internal diameter (approximate size British J 1/2, USA 5, Europe 9.32, Japan 9)



From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.

Composed of a tapering, round-section body with flat base and inverted triangular mouth holding a moveable bar, suspended on a ring with twisted wire coils and stamped with small circles repeated on the bar below; the fish body decorated with four panels of low-relief Mammen Style interlacing with remains of gilding; two circular piercings to each side of the body. 23.2 grams, 72 mm high

Fine condition.

Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s. Ex Westminster collection, central London, UK.

Originally produced as a necklace element, refashioned at an unspecified point in antiquity into a pendant, possibly as early as the 9th-10th century A.D. Pendants of this type were worn strung together in groups, the tapering profile allowing them to sit comfortably as a collar below the neck. They were often worn suspended between two zoomorphic brooches. This example has been taken from a necklace and mounted on a suspension ring for use as an amuletic pendant.

Formed as a crouching beast modelled in the round with hollow slot to the underside; elongated head with raised lentoid eyes and ellipsoid ears, ribbed wings to the shoulders, knop tail and splayed claws to the feet; mouth open with detailed fangs. 84.9 grams, 66 mm



From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no. 200289.

The navigation techniques in use in Iron Age Northern Europe were very sophisticated, as would be expected from people bordering the Baltic, North Sea and North Atlantic where boat- and ship-building traditions have been perfected over more than a thousand years. A carved wooden panel from Bergen, Norway, shows a number of Viking longships at sea, some with weathervanes mounted on the stempost. They are mounted vertically with the beast on the outer end. Gilded bronze weathervanes appear on the roofs of medieval churches in Sweden, Norway and Finland where they are often regarded as ornamental: symbols of access to resources and craftsmanship for the important families who endowed such buildings. These weathervanes in many cases originally adorned ships and were used as part of the navigational equipment. They may have inspired the medieval Norman custom of attaching a gilded weathervane or cock to church roofs, which eventually spread to secular buildings such as castles in France and Italy where their use was restricted to certain ranks of nobility (Lindgrén, 1983).