A Swedish bronze spiral armlet
Bronze Age, circa 12th-10th Century B.C.
Of coiled form, circular in section, composed of fourteen ribbed spirals with raised edges and midrib, the ends recurved, now in two pieces, 15.2cm long注脚Provenance:
Lord McAlpine (1942-2014) collection, UK, acquired in London.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 December 1990, lot 103.
with Merrin Gallery, New York.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above in January 1991.

Exhibited:
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Antiquities from Europe and The Near East in the Collection of The Lord McAlpine of West Green, 5th May-2nd August 1987.

Published:
A. MacGregor (ed.), Antiquities from Europe and The Near East in the Collection of The Lord McAlpine of West Green, Oxford, 1987, p. 98, no. 9.7.

This armlet formed part of a set of personal equipment, which is most likely to have been a hoard rather than a grave group (see P. Northover and A. Sherratt in MacGregor, op. cit., p. 27, pl. 15). Similar armlets have been discovered in Bronze Age hoards at Haltrop, Småland and Södermanland in Sweden. For a related piece, see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 2000.407.2.