Beschreibung:

SCANDINAVIAN VIKING JELLINGE BEAST MOUNT 10th-11th century AD A bronze openwork mount in the form of an s-shaped beast decorated with panels of hatching interlaced with openwork tendrils, scrolled ends turning to form the frames for the attachment rivets; the design including hatched body panels of the earlier Jellinge style, with later mesh of tendrils and lentoid eye of the Ringerike Style. 26 grams, 62mm (2 1/2"). Condition Very fine condition. Very rare. Provenance From an important American collection; acquired 1990s. Literature Cf. the enmeshed animal mount from Hertfordshire in Backhouse, J., Turner, D.H. and Webster, L. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art: 966-1066, London, 1984, item 107. Footnotes The Jellinge style takes its name from the ornament on a silver cup found in the north mound of the Danish royal site at Jelling, Jutland, in the burial chamber thought to be that of King Gorm