Lot 39
Northern and Eastern Europe, Viking Rus, ca. 8th to 11th centuries CE. A gorgeous necklace composed of sixty alternating red and blue glass beads, most of irregular, polyhedral shape, and some rounded or ovoid. Hanging in the center is a long, ceremonial axe-shaped white bronze (a copper alloy with a high percentage of tin) pendant with a thin cylindrical socket for suspension on its narrower end. One side is undecorated and smooth; the other is decorated with a cast abstract motif of diamonds around a raised square. A wearable and beautiful piece. Length of strand: 20.5" (52.1 cm);
By 800 CE, the Vikings were trading across a huge area, from the islands of the North Atlantic (the first glass beads known from North America appear to have come from the Viking trading post at L'anse aux Meadow, Newfoundland) to northern Russia and the Islamic world; glass beadmaking was a standard in many of the regions they visited, and so they returned home and established beadmaking workshops in Scandinavia and traded them at the great trading emporia like Hedeby and Birka. Beads were often worn as festoons strung between oval brooches, though sometimes also as necklaces.
Provenance: private Huntington Beach, California, USA collection
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#122672
- Condition: Light patina on glass, with some of the beads having a pale iridescence. Very light surface wear on the glass. White bronze pendant is in very nice condition, with clear details, and light signs of wear from age. Modern stringing.
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