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LOT 0261
Viking Period Sword Belt Mount Set
CIRCA 9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
5/8 - 3 3/4 in. (130 grams total, 17-97 mm).
A suite of bronze and iron fittings for a display belt including a buckle with openwork plate, tongue-shaped end, rectangular repoussé mounts, some with slots to the lower edge to accept a strap to mount a purse, knife or other item, strap-distributor with circular central element and three attachment mounts. [24, No Reserve]
ProvenanceAcquired 1971-1972.
From the collection of the vendor's father.
Property of a London, UK, collector.
Cf. Arbman, H., Birka I: Die Gräber, Uppsala, 1940, pl.39, 86, 88-91.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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Viking Age Stamped Silver Pendant
Circa 8th-10th century A.D. or laterSold for (Inc. bp): £312
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. -
Viking Age Bracelet Group
Circa 8th-10th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £156
A group of two flat-section copper-alloy penannular bracelets, one decorated with scallops around the upper and lower edge with annulet fill; one decorated with a medial wavy line between plain bands, loop terminals with ring to both. 35 grams total, 57-59 mm
Early 1990s London collection. Acquired on the UK art market. From a private collection, Lancashire, UK. -
Pre-Viking Silver Filigree Aroma Bucket Pendant
4th-7th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £416
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.
