Northern Europe,Viking / Norse, ca. 8th to 10th century CE. A trio of fine cast openwork bronze brooches in a form called Odin Wheels, all round, each in a distinctive form that looks like a wheel and has a loop to serve as a clasp. One of the three (in the photos, the furthest right facing) is white bronze, a copper alloy with high tin content. The wheel design is a common one, and is meant to look like the wheels of a chariot, a vehicle still used in the Anglo-Saxon period - for example, Erkenwald (Earconwald), the Bishop of London from 675 to 693, is depicted in Anglo-Saxon art as using one to traverse his diocese. The symbolism of the wheel is also partly a holdover from pagan Iron Age Europe, when the wheel was associated with the sun and the sky. All three brooch faces are displayed together on a custom stand. Size of largest: 2.05" W x 2.25" H (5.2 cm x 5.7 cm); height on stand: 4.35" (11 cm)

Provenance: private Orange County, California, USA collection

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#125037

All are missing their pins, and all have smooth green patinas. The one in the center of the photo has some corrosion on its loop.