Northern Europe, Viking / Norse culture, ca. 8th to 11th century CE. An elegant hammered silver bracelet with a stamped motif of circular, pinpoint, and stippled triangular designs. Each terminal has a tangential fastening panel with three petite perforations used to secure the band to the wearer's wrist. The stamped triangular pattern was very popular in the Viking world, although its meaning is unknown. The circles and pinpoint designs may represent certain stars in the night sky and may have been inspired by the fascinating visions that the Vikings encountered sailing above the Arctic Circle, where optical phenomena have been extensively documented. Size: 2.875" Diameter (7.3 cm); total weight: 49.3 grams.
A piece such as this would have been made in a specialized workshop centered around a hearth, probably using the lost wax casting technique. 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
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#132867
Condition
Wearable as shown. Surface wear commensurate with age and use, light tarnishing to silver surfaces, slight bending to overall form, and minor fading to stamped designs, otherwise intact and near-choice. Light earthen deposits within recessed areas and some stamped designs.