Lot 50
Northern Europe, Viking or Norse culture, ca. 8th to 11th century CE. A magnificent necklace known as a torc (also torq, torque) composed of a singular strand of high-grade (98%) silver. The flattened and loosely coiled torc body spirals roughly forty-three times before tapering to form the sinuous upper necklace arms, and petite triangular stamps form pyramidal motifs on each coil. Thick terminal coils slide effortlessly along the opposite arm so the size can be adjusted for a comfortable wear. Viking men and women would wear accessories like this example as a sign of religious belief and visual wealth. They were often used as currency or deposited in rivers as offerings to the gods, though they were also buried with their owners upon death. Size: 8" W x 7.8" H (20.3 cm x 19.8 cm); 26.25" Circumference (66.7 cm); quality of silver: 98%; total weight: 129.1 grams.
The important Viking metalworking shops correspond to their great trading ports and proto-urban centers - Birka, Helgo, Sigtuna, and Lund in Sweden, Ribe, Haithabu (Hedeby), and Fyrkat in Denmark, and Kaupang and Trondheim in Norway. Silver was the principal currency of the Viking world, which stretched from Russia to northern Canada at the height of their influence. In many places, the Vikings kept silver not as coins, but as jewelry, a wearable currency form that was not subject to the authority of a monarch or mint. One of the most common archaeological finds from the Viking period is a hoard of metal objects, often buried in the earth or deposited in bodies of water, like river beds.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg) and then Latvia collection; found on the Baltic Sea coast prior to 1982
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#153454
- Condition: Professionally cleaned and conserved to enable wearability. Minor abrasions to terminals, arms, and body, with minor nicks to some coil peripheries and stamped motifs, and light deposits within some coils, otherwise intact and excellent. Light patina throughout.
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