10th-12th century AD. A silver hollow-formed pectoral cross pendant with applied filigree hoops to the fusiform head, stylised face with circular eyes and beaked nose, beard developing to a dense interlaced panel of filigree and granulation. Cf. Franceschi, G., Jorn, A. & Magnus, B., Mennesker, Guder og Masker i Nordisk Jernalderkunst, vol.1, Borgen, 2005, pl.227.7.8 grams, 43mm (1 3/4"). From a private Northwest country collection since early 2000; previously from a UK private collection from the 1980s; accompanied by a collector's cataloguing slip. This piece bears many similarities to a hoard found on the island of Hiddensee in the Baltic Sea. The hoard consisted of a classic Borre-style disc brooch, a neck ring of four twisted rods and a necklace of ten stylised cruciform pendants, such as this example. The items constitute a single set of jewellery and seems to have been a gift from a Danish nobleman intended for presentation to a Slav woman of high standing. They were buried for safety en route, during some local emergency that resulted in it not being claimed. Evidence for the production of pendants in the Hiddensee style is provided by the remarkable find of forty-one bronze dies, as used for the manufacture of the pressed sheets onto which the filigree wires and granules were soldered. These dies were kept together in a leather bag, which had been dropped in the harbour at Hedeby. [No Reserve]