|
Date: |
|
Description: | Copper-alloy strap-end with inlaid niello (black silver sulphide) panels and silver wire decoration. Now in a very abraded condition, with all of the edges missing, it was clearly once a beautifully made object. The split attachment end is broken through one rivet hole, but a second small copper-alloy rivet survives. There are two grooves between the rivet holes which flare out in curves around the bottom of the holes, and then taper to form a central lozengiform panel. This retains a drop-shaped niello panel (which may originally have been larger) into which is set a spiral of silver wire, curving clockwise with a long tail which has a single anti-clockwise turn to form a reversed S shape which is larger at the top than at the bottom. To either side of the tail are tiny curls of silver wire. Each of the triangles to the sides of the central lozenge is also set with a niello panel and has a similar S-shaped coil, larger at the bottom than at the top this time and set so that they form mirror images of each other. The tiny curls are present on these panels too, and on one (which is missing all of its wire leaving just channels in the niello) there is a hint of a third tiny curl at the top. Below is a large animal-head terminal which takes up nearly half of the strap-end. The ears are the usual ovals with triangles in their bases. On the brow is a lozengiform niello panel and down the nose is a drop-shaped one perhaps joining it at the upper point. The silver wire design on the niello panels within the head is less easy to reconstruct, but it may have been similar to that on the central panel with a clockwise spiral on the brow with one tiny curl below, then a single straight line running down to a smaller anti-clockwise spiral on the nose with a second tiny curl above. To either side is a relief eye. On the reverse is a patch of iron corrosion. This style of strap-end dates to the ninth century; it is a distinctively East Anglian type. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 800
900 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
STRAP END
Copper-alloy strap-end with inlaid niello…
-
-
STRAP END
Copper alloy strap-end with niello…
-
-
HOARD
Hoard of 23 coins, four…
-
STRAP END
Copper-alloy strap-end decorated with silver…
-
-
-
-
|