**First Time At Auction**

Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Viking or Norse culture, ca. 9th to 11th century CE. A beautiful 65% to 98.6% silver brooch or belt buckle of rounded rectangular form exhibiting an abstract zoomorphic creature known as a "gripping beast," so called because its enormous serpentine legs are shown to wrap around whatever is in reach and 'grip' it so it cannot escape. The left-facing creature is shown 'standing' atop its tentacle-form limbs, each wrapping around a pair of abstract snakes shown intertwined within the scene. The gripping beast itself features incised swirls above its thighs, stacked stripes down the lower legs, and linear as well as stippled motifs on the neck. The entire obverse side is covered in a lustrous layer of gilding with scattered areas of the verso being covered in gilding as well. Size: 3.1" W x 2.68" H (7.9 cm x 6.8 cm); silver quality: 65% to 98.6%; gold quality: 33.45%; total weight: 107.1 grams

This is an incredible piece of wearable artwork and displayed wealth, which in the volatile Viking period often manifested in the form of jewelry made from precious metals, this necklace would have belonged to one of the most elite members of society.

The Jellinge Style (ca. 880 to 1000 CE) refers to a genre of ancient Scandinavian animal art that features stylized zoomorphic forms. Its name is derived from a small cup that was discovered in a royal burial mound at Jellinge, Denmark which was believed to be the burial place of King Gorm. This cup was decorated with S-shaped animals possessing profiled heads, ribbon-like bodies, spiral hips, and curled upper lips.

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.

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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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#176890

Professionally cleaned across all surfaces. Minor abrasions to openwork decorations and surfaces, with light pitting in scattered areas, slight bending to overall form of buckle and pin, otherwise intact and excellent. Wonderful preservation to gripping beast and gilding in most areas. Pin on verso still articulates smoothly.