Viking Period Lock and Key Group

A silver pendant formed as a miniature bucket with applied filigree bands to the strap handle and body, granules to the median panel of the body and at the junction with the handle. 4.28 grams, 25 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.

A group of iron keys and a lock; three keys with square pierced finials; one with a disc finial, two square voids; one with a cruciform head. crimped edges and void; iron barrel padlock with hasp. 250 grams total, 10.7-11.8 cm



Acquired 1971-1972. From the collection of the vendor's father. Property of a London, UK, collector.

A discoid silver pendant decoratively stamped with blank triangles, triangles containing trefoil pellets and annulets containing pellets; ribbed tubular suspension loop; Latvian workmanship. 11.8 grams, 55 mm



Acquired in the 1990s. From a North Yorkshire private collection, UK.