Copper-alloy and iron, 32.22 grams, 43.58 mm. 9th-11th century AD. A zoomorphic terminal from a Viking period firesteel. The handle is formed as a cast curved copper-alloy bar with ribbed collar decoration on the inner end developing into a re-curved serpentine animal-headed loop which rejoins the underside of the handle. The animal's upper lip is detailed with a row of punched roundels, and its body bears a chevron executed in a similar manner at the junction with the ribbed panel. The iron striking surface is visible at the fractured end. Reference: cf. firesteels with 'two horsemen' motif illustrated in Lehtosalo-Hillander, P-L. Luistari II, Helsinki, 1982 p.74 and the zoomorphic detail on the tau-crosshead in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published in Backhouse, J., Turner, D.H., and Webster, L. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966-1066, London, 1984, p.119-20 item 121. Very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection, found in East Anglia.