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Description: | Description: A silver finger-ring with hoop rounded in cross-section, and thinned flat oval bezel, just 1.0 mm thick, bearing zoomorphic engraved decoration within a reserved border which is decorated on the long sides with fine punched dots. The beast is in Trewhiddle style, and has a curved body with rearward-facing head with long open jaws filling the space between head and back. The head also has a long rounded ear. The front leg is short and ends in two toes, one of which reaches upwards towards the beast's ear. The rear leg is more defined, starting at a chunky hip and ending in another two-toed foot; the upper or front toe is very long. There is a short tail ending in a rounded lobe. There is a nick into the upper edge of the back near the tail, and two short incised lines within the centre of the body; there is also a further longer incised line across the animal's belly. No niello can be seen in the engraved recesses around the animal, and there is no keying visible to hold the niello to the metal, but it is likely from parallels that it would originally have been present, giving a good contrast between the bright silver and the glossy black of the niello.The spandrels or ends of the bezel each have a simple oval motif, perhaps a leaf, within a reserved border with no dots. The shoulders of the ring each have a double ridged collar, now rather worn externally.Dimensions: Length: 24.2 mm; width: 22.4 mm; max. thickness: 2.55 mm; weight: 4.59 g.Discussion: A similar finger-ring with ridged shoulders and an oval bezel bearing a single Trewhiddle-style animal can be found on the PAS database at NMS-A67AE8, although this example is made from copper alloy and the level of craftsmanship is quite low. A silver and niello parallel, but not so close, can be found at NMS-F27122, and there is another silver parallel excavated from a 10th-century context at York (Webster and Backhouse 1991, no. 204).Date: The use of the Trewhiddle style dates this finger-ring broadly to the 9th century.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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