Viking Silver Bracelet w/ Stamped Mjolnir Motif, 47.1 g

Northern Europe, Viking or Norse culture, ca. 9th to 11th century CE. A wonderful and wearable bracelet of a penannular form constructed from a thick strip of high-grade (98.4%) silver. The bracelet body was shaped around a curved mandrill to create the broad, circular form, and the excess on each end was wrapped into a decorative spiraled terminal. Stamped across the exterior surfaces are petite representations of Mjolnir - the legendary and nigh-indestructible hammer of the thunder god Thor - shown in two mirrored registers with neighboring pairs separated by impressed stippling. Fine patina envelops this exquisite example of fashionable Viking metallurgy. Size: 3.1" L x 2.8" W x 0.4" thick (7.9 cm x 7.1 cm x 1 cm); quality of silver: 98.4%; total weight: 47.1 grams.

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 its 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; ex-private Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg) and then Latvia collection; found on the Baltic Sea coast prior to 1982

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#153448
Condition Report: Wearable as shown. Very slight bending to overall form, with minor softening to some stamped details, and light encrustations within coiled terminals, otherwise intact and excellent. Smooth patina throughout, and Mjolnir iconography visible across exterior.