The “Head of the Scheldt” is one of those rare objects that feels alive even in museum light: a carved wooden beast-head once fixed to the front of a vessel, pulled from the River Scheldt in Belgium, and now preserved by the British Museum. VarVar’s pendant takes that same aggressive silhouette, gaping jaws, teeth, staring eyes and turns it into a wearable heirloom with real provenance behind the shape.
What is the “Head of the Scheldt”?
According to the British Museum, the Head of the Scheldt is described as a ship’s figurehead made of carved oak, ending in an animal head “with gaping beak-like jaws and prominent teeth and eyes.” The long stem is deeply carved with a lozenge lattice pattern, and a tenon projects from the base perforated, so it could be pegged into the ship’s structure. It’s big (149 cm tall), functional, and meant to be seen.
Calling it the “Head of the Scheldt” is basically shorthand: it’s an animal-head figurehead from the Scheldt riverbed, an identifiable “face” of the river and of the vessel that carried it.
Discovery in Belgium
The figurehead was found during dredging operations in the River Schelde (Scheldt), near Appels (near Dendermonde) in Belgium, exactly the kind of accidental recovery that saves organic materials like wood, because riverbeds can preserve them for centuries in low-oxygen conditions.
That detail matters: this isn’t “Viking-inspired” in the vague Pinterest sense. It is a documented artifact with a specific findspot and a traceable museum record.
Dates of origin
The museum dates the piece to the late 4th–5th century. The curator’s comments add an important nuance: radiocarbon testing at the British Museum Research Laboratory produced a calibrated date range that has been cited as AD 400–615 (with wider probability ranges also discussed), even though the object has been widely published as Viking Age in older literature.
In other words, this figurehead sits in the transitional zone, late Roman world, early Germanic influence, right before the fully formed visual language we typically label as Viking.
That’s exactly why it fits the Heirloom idea: it’s a genuine “origin point” object, not a later fantasy of the past.
Why a monster at the bow?
On a practical level, a figurehead is branding and psychology. It declares presence at a distance. On the symbolic level, VarVar frames these fierce heads as talismans, images meant to ward off evil and protect a ship moving through dangerous, unknown water. That belief, protective symbolism through terrifying form, is the core story the pendant carries forward.
Head of the Scheldt Pendant
Characteristics
VarVar offers the pendant in a full heirloom-grade spread of metals:
- 925 sterling silver (starting at $319)
- 10k / 14k / 18k gold (yellow or white)
- 950 platinum
This lineup is the real “heirloom” move: you can enter in silver, then rebuild the same symbol in gold/platinum when you want permanence, legacy, or simply a heavier “forever” version.
Design
A good artifact-based piece shouldn’t look like a literal museum label turned into jewelry. The win here is that the pendant keeps the signature aggression, the open jaw silhouette and the predatory curve, while reading as modern wearable symbolism, not cosplay.
That aligns with VarVar’s stated Heirloom approach: inspired by real artifacts, adjusted for daily wear, built around meaning.
Wearability and styling
This is a statement pendant, it performs best when you let it lead:
- Wear it solo on a clean chain or cord; keep other symbols minimal.
- Works with black/white tees, knits, leather, and simple tailoring—any outfit where one “sharp” focal point improves the whole look.
- If you layer, do it with one thinner chain above it (no extra talismans fighting for attention).
Choose your heirloom >>
A relic is the original object that survived. An heirloom is what you pass forward with a story still attached.
The Head of the Scheldt has a “relic” status because it is a documented, dated, excavated ship-figurehead with a museum record and a known findspot.
The VarVar pendant earns “heirloom” status when you treat it the same way the ancient sailors treated the original head: not as decoration, but as a personal marker, protection, threshold-crossing, and the will to move through unknown waters without asking permission.
