Viking Mount with Entwined Beasts

Comprising links formed from coiled wire, hook-and-eye closure; free-running suspension loop and axe-head pendant. 13 grams, 58.5 cm



Acquired on the London art market in the late 1980s-1990s. From the family collection of an East London, UK, gentleman.

A group of flat-section Mordvinian type brooches. 72.7 grams total, 55-59 mm



Acquired on the European art market since the early 2000s. From the private Northern Ireland collection of R.M.

This type of brooch belongs to the typologies of the omega brooches. It was probably used by Ugro-Finnic people to fasten the shirt at the neck or to attach other lighter garments. These brooches evolved to become very elaborate, with dangling springs from the edges, and were often worn in pairs, particularly on female garments. In this late Viking period their coins demonstrated Russian and Eastern Roman influences in their art and jewellery.

Miniature drum-shaped vessel with strap handle, beaded wire bands to top and bottom of sidewall, filigree loop ornament. 2.45 grams, 21 mm



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

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 amulets they probably represent the ecstatic power of alcoholic drink and the role of women as the dispensers of these precious beverages.