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Scandinavian Viking Great Beast Weather Vane Terminal
英国 北京时间
2021年11月30日 开拍 / 2021年11月28日 截止委托
拍品描述
11th century AD. A gilt-bronze Ringerike style Great Beast finial for a Viking long-ship weather vane or other similar nautical piece of equipment, formed in the round as a standing quadruped with scrolls to the hips and shoulders, raised head with eye rivetted at the feet for attachment to a rectangular plate now detached, the plate with eight rivet spikes for attachment to the underside. For ship-vanes of Ringerike style see Graham-Campbell, J., Viking Art, London, 2013, items 138-140 for a discussion of Viking-period weather vanes and their re-use as badges of nobility in Normandy, see Engstr?m, J. & Nyk?nen, P., New Interpretations of Viking Age Weathervanes, in Fornv?nnen, vol.91, 1996 Lindgrén, S., Viking Weather-Vane Practices in Medieval France in Fornv?nnen, vol.91, 1996 and Lindgrén, S., Viking Weather-Vane Practices in Medieval France in Fornv?nnen, vol.78, 1983. 138 grams total, 93mm (3 3/4"). From a central London, Westminster, collection previously in a private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10983-181153. The navigation techniques in use in Iron Age Northern Europe were very sophisticated, as would be expected from people bordering the Baltic, North Sea and North Atlantic where boat- and ship-building traditions have been perfected over more than a thousand years. A carved wooden panel from Bergen, Norway, shows a number of Viking longships at sea, some with weathervanes mounted on the stempost. They are mounted vertically with the beast on the outer end. Gilded bronze weathervanes appear on the roofs of medieval churches in Sweden, Norway and Finland where they are often regarded as ornamental: symbols of access to resources and craftsmanship for the important families who endowed such buildings. These weathervanes in many cases originally adorned ships and were used as part of the navigational equipment. They may have inspired the medieval Norman custom of attaching a gilded weathervane or cock to church roofs, which eventually spread to secular buildings such as castles in France and Italy where their use was restricted to certain ranks of nobility (Lindgrén, 1983"). Weathervanes were used for determining the strength and direction of the wind, in conjunction with the sólarsteinn (sunstone) Icelandic feldspar which polarises sunlight and allows the suns position to be determined in overcast conditions. A wooden bearing-dial fragment was found in Greenland - a destination colonised by Icelanders in the 11th century - with the horizon divided into 32 sectors. This would give an accuracy of about 11 degrees per sector, which would make landfall using latitude sailing a straightforward matter. Engstr?m & Nyk?nen (1996) suggested that the vanes were decorated with holes or markers on the outer edge which enabled the helmsman to make an assessment of the suns height from the position and length of the shadow, and thus to work out his position by rule of thumb. These holes may have been used to attach streamers as a visual aid. The ships equipped with these weathervanes may have been the flagships of their fleets, taking the lead in navigation and in manoeuvring. The dragon on the weathervane may thus have signified the position of the fleets leader, and may even have given rise to the name drakka (dragon) for the largest type of Viking period ship.
condition:Fine condition.

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价格信息

拍品估价:4,000 - 6,000 英镑 起拍价格:3,600 英镑  买家佣金: 27.00% + VAT 服务费:平台服务费为成交总金额(含佣金)的3%,最低200元

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