Tag Archive | bird pendant

Animal jewellery part 2

Apr2

It’s been a while since I last did a blog post on the animal jewellery in my Etsy shop, and I have some new pieces.

First off, it’s frog time! The first frog spawn appeared in our pond on Thursday (29 March 2018) – quite a bit later than last year (7 March 2017) but the Beast from the East and the Mini Beast from the East put everything back quite significantly. In honour of our froggy friends I present:

Edwardian turquoise and red stone frog brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

1987 solid sterling silver frog brooch, London hallmark. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Art Deco celluloid cicada brooch, decorated with gold paint, probably French. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

1989 sterling silver scarab pendant. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Spider brooch with faux turquoise body. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Lion rampant ring. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

1989 sterling silver lion’s head ring, Sheffield hallmark. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Volmer Bahner red enamel butterfly pendant and chain. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

David-Andersen green enamel butterfly stud earrings. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

David-Andersen orange enamel butterfly stud earrings. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Victorian yellow glass ladybird brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Sterling silver owl brooch, in a Charles Rennie Mackintosh style. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Sterling silver bird pendant and chain by Magnus Maximus Designs. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

830 silver dolphin cufflinks, made in Denmark. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Sea beast / porpoise / dolphin / mythological creature ring in 850 (or possibly 950) silver. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Sterling silver fish brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Danish fish link bracelet in 830 silver. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Sterling silver fish brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Ram’s head bangle in 900 silver. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Danish leaping deer or gazelle brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Swedish pewter hare pendant and chain. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Zoomorphic Celtic brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Zoomorphic Celtic bar brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

Zoomorphic pewter serpent brooch by Eivind G Hillestad of Norway, in a Viking  style. For sale in my Etsy shop, Inglenookery: click on photo for details.

The full range of the animal jewellery in my Etsy shop can be seen here.

The Viking bird pendant from Hattula, Finland

Jul2

I recently got this fab vintage piece for my Etsy shop, with its goofy face and its jiggly, dangly legs, and tried to find a bit more about it.

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The bronze bird pendant necklace by Kalevala Koru, based on a silver Viking bird pendant from Hattula, Finland. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

I knew it was made by the Finnish jewellery firm of Kalevala Koru of Helsinki, one of the largest jewellery firms in Finland, and a further google truffle told me it was designed by Kimmo Virkkunen. I also learned that it was based on a late Viking-era hoard find. My ears pricked up. I love me a hoard.

Here’s the original on which the modern iteration is based:

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The Viking-era original sheet silver pendant. Note it doesn’t have any legs.

The caption in Finnish on the National Board of Antiquities webpage translates as ‘The bird-shaped pendant in silver is decorated with filigree. The pendant is part of a silver treasure found in Luurila in Hattula’.

A further google truffle tells me that the hoard was found in a field, part of a farm called Luurila in the municipality of Hattula in south-central Finland, near the village of Pelkola. The farm is on the south-west shore of Lake Renkojärvi. It is thought that the hoard was originally buried in a leather bag or some other container that had disintegrated; the ploughing of the field had spread the contents over an area of about 25 m². In 1906, after a few coins and a pendant had been found in the field, the site was excavated by the National Museum, and produced a significant number of finds.

The pendant dates from between 800-1025 AD, and the hoard was buried around 1040 AD. The hoard comprised silver necklets, pendants, and strap mounts, carnelian and glass beads, and 126 silver coins, including Anglo-Saxon ones from England and Byzantine ones with Kufic Arabic. The coins allowed the date of deposition of the hoard to be established to a very close date.

The pendant is made of sheet silver, with a filigree decoration. The bird’s legs are missing, but the suspension loop from which they presumably would have hung survives. The modern version by Kalevala Koru gives the bird the long, webbed feet of a waterfowl. Given the preponderance of lakes and inland waterways in Finland (there are over 55,000 lakes there, according to Wikipedia, which rather knock the 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire into a cocked hat), and the shape of the bird’s body, this does not seem like an unreasonable interpretation. It reminds me of a coot (Fulica atra) or a moorhen (Gallinula chloropus):

A coot ( Photo by Marcus Rowland.

A coot. Photo by Marcus Rowland.

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus). Photo by Tony Hisgett.

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus). Photo by Tony Hisgett.

but as the moorhen doesn’t have webbed feet I guess the Kalevala Koru one at least can’t be that.

Most of the information on the hoard in this post comes from Anglo-Saxon Coins Found in Finland by C.A. Nordman, published in Helsingfors in 1921 and which has been digitised and made available on the web by the University of Illinois as part of its Brittle Books Project. Hurrah for UIUC!