This large Viking bead was modelled on a ring brooch terminal from the Viking Age. The Viking bead is particularly suitable as a central bead for necklaces and collars, as its size and very decorative appearance alone make it a real eye-catcher. The model for this Viking bead was a ball end piece of a Viking ring brooch, which is artistically and technically one of the most beautiful works of Viking art.

The end piece was found in a large Viking Age silver hoard in Eketorp, Sweden, and is now in the Örebro Lans Museum, west of Stockholm. The brooch end was a hollow-cast silver ball, and almost the entire surface was decorated with niello inlays in the Jellinge and Mammen styles.

Much of the Eketorp hoard was made of silver, which was broken into pieces in the Viking Age as so-called hacked silver.
In its original form, this luxurious brooch would have been one of the largest and heaviest brooches known from Viking Age Europe, and its former owner was certainly a person of high standing. 

Dimensions
Length: 2.4 cm
Width: 1.5 cm
Hole Diameter: 0.4 cm