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Details
LOT 1460
Viking Bronze Urnes Style Mount Collection
11TH CENTURY A.D.
1 1/8 - 1 3/4 in. (41.7 grams total, 29-46 mm).
Comprising: one C-shaped mount with tendril detailing; two irregular pierced pendants with beast-head suspension lug; one lead master for making pendant moulds. [4, No Reserve]
Provenance
From the collection of a North American gentleman, formed in the 1990s.
Literature
Cf. similar form of mounts in the British Museum, London, under accession number 1984,0302.1; Lincoln Museum, DT 174 AE 108; Hemel Hempstead (St Albans’ Museum Service (Verulamium Museum), SABMS, 81.281; for their use see Beatson, P., 'Wickelbander' in Varangian Voice, 37, November, 1995, pp.9-17, fig.8.
Footnotes
The comparatively recent finds from Lincoln, Hemel Hempstead and Grantham have considerably augmented the number of objects found in England decorated in the Urnes style, the last art style of the Vikings, and indicate that English metalworkers could produce objects of high quality. The employment of these mounts was probably linked with the fastening of puttees around the calves, the so-called wickelbander. Evidence for similar mounts as fastening pieces comes from Leyre (Danemark) and Novgorod (Ryurik Gorodische), and many other localities.
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