Celtic Silver Head of a Boar

Culture: Middle Europe

Period: 2nd-1st century B.C.

Material: Silver

Dimensions: 4 cm long

Price: Sold

Ref: 5127

Provenance: Found in the 1960s, since the 1970s in an English collection in Durham. Last in a collection in West Yorkshire.

Condition: Intact

Description: Very rare, stylized head of a silver boar. The snout long and cylindrical with a thick nose ring and punched nostrils. Eyes and fur finely engraved in cold work. The ridge elegantly pulled back, the ears in the front raised. The head once decorated a high-quality object. By all accounts found in Central Europe. Hogs were holy animals for the Celts, who believed that they originated from the “otherworld”. Therefore depictions of boars are found as funerary offerings, as crests, as standards and as decoration on torques. And not to forget: A hog brings fortune until today. Mounted.