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Description: | A cast copper alloy zoomorphic hook from a hanging bowl mount of Anglo-Saxon date. The zoomorphic hook survives intact and preserves a short section of the escutcheon, but the remainder of the mount is missing due to old breaks. It is sub-rectangular in plan, with a curved profile, probably in the form of a bird's neck and head, with a hollow/concave back face. Extending from one side at the base of the hook is a short rectangular section of the escutcheon, which is decorated on its outer surfaces with a white metal coating. At the point where the hook and escutcheon meet is a single iron rivet that is visible on both front and back faces of the hook and would presumably have enabled attachment to the wall of the bowl itself. Above the rivet the neck of the bird is semi-circular in section with a concave back face and curves gently towards the terminal end. Half way up the outer face of the neck are two transverse grooves. At the point where the grooves meet the edge of the hook further single grooves extend from the edge to the centre of the terminal forming a triangular motif on the exterior face of the neck. The terminal itself is defined by two prominent moulded semi-circular lobes that represent the ears or eyes of the bird and between which the two grooves visible on the neck meet. At this point the terminal turns sharply inwards at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. It is triangular in section and sub-rectangular in plan, tapering to a flattened snout/beak at the exterior edge. A prominent ridge runs down the centre of the beak from between the eyes/ears to the end of the terminal. A single circular iron rivet is visible at the end of the beak for attachment of the hook to the top of the vesel rim. There are slight traces of an added white metal coating on all exterior surfaces of the hook, suggesting it was originally completely coated with a white metal finish. The entire hook measures 27.54mm in height, 11.91mm in width (at base; 18.31mm in width including escutcheon fragment), 4.39mm in thickness, and weighs 7.34g.
This is a decorative, zoomorphic hook, probably representing the head of a bird, from a hanging bowl mount of Anglo-Saxon date. From the base of the hook would originally have extended a probably circular decorative mount that would have been visible on the exterior of the bowl, the hook itself attached to the top of the rim allowing a ring and chain to pass through it for suspension of the bowl. Similar examples are noted by Brenan in her study of hanging bowls (Brenan, 1991: see in particular nos. 13, 25, 32, 34, 39) and a parallel can be seen with an example from Coddenham in Suffolk (Plunkett, 2001: 75-77, pl. 6d). These indicate a date in the 6th to 7th centuries AD for the current example. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Brown, Andrew | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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