Anglo-Saxon Bronze Entwined Serpent Mount

Fragmentary vessel, cylindrical in form with lateral D-shaped lugs at the rim, each pierced to accept a bronze drop-handle with returned ends; the outer face with decorative frieze executed in pointillé technique consisting of a hunting scene: (1) a nude male with right arm raised to wield a spear overarm, left arm hidden behind a lenticular shield with pointed boss, with a cloak billowing from the left shoulder and wearing calf-length boots, advancing towards (2) a panther with densely spotted pointillé body, in rampant pose with s-curved tail, raised forepaws and with a curled tree behind the body, attacking (3) a nude male similarly equipped to (1), with head turned to the rear, wielding a sword or large knife in his right hand, following (4) another nude male with a cloak, shield and knife which he plunges into the throat of (5) a bear attacking to the left with forelegs raised, its rounded head with small lobed ears while to its rear stands (6) a male with shield raised and cloak billowing, right hand raised holding a rounded trefoil item (perhaps a net), and to his rear stands (7) a nude male with cloak, shield and spear which he thrusts towards (8) the neck of an attacking gryphon, winged, with an erect mane and beaked head in leaping pose behind (1); the figures all executed in pointillé style with pellets for the eyes, navel and nipples; detached base plate, undecorated but showing signs of tinning. 523 grams, 22 cm wide



Found East Anglia, believed Cambridgeshire, UK. From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent. Accompanied by a copy of Drandaki, A., "ΥΓΙΕΝΩΝ ΧΡΩ KYPI(E)" A Late Roman brass bucket with a hunting scene.

The vessel is of an unusual type: three have been found in Turkey, Italy and Spain, three in England (excluding the present examples) and three others have unknown findspots; this find brings the total of known examples to ten. The rarity of these vessels indicates the high status of their owners. Each of these buckets is decorated with a hunting frieze and most have an inscription in early medieval Greek. Their manufacture is so similar that it is thought that they were produced at a single workshop in the Eastern Empire, possibly at Antioch, in the 6th century AD (Drandaki, n.d.). Their exact use is not certain, but since several of the inscriptions refer to 'good health' this suggests a domestic setting related to bathing. The rounded object held by figure (6) is clearly based on a similar rounded clump which appears on the vessel in Benaki Museum (beneath the word ' KAΛOI') where it is more convincingly executed with a hatched fill (Drandaki, p.39). Only three examples of this type of vessel are previously known from England: one from Bromeswell, Suffolk, within 1 km of the Sutton Hoo cemetery, found in preparatory work for the Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre; one from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, where the bucket was part of a rich female grave excavated in the 19th century; one from Breamore, Hampshire, found by metal-detectorist, and excavated by Hampshire County Council's archaeology team who discovered that the grave in which it was found formed part of an important early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The excavation was filmed by Channel 4's Time Team in August 2001; the cemetery held six more burials with bronze containers, though none as grand as this Byzantine example.

With engraved foliate decoration, two pairs of stylised beast heads to the sides, a central hole for attachment. 61 grams, 90 mm



Believed to have been found in the UK. Acquired from C & T Auctioneers, Ashord, Kent, UK. Property of a Shropshire private collector.

A large openwork fitting, D-shaped in section with incised running keystone and zigzag to the upper and lower faces; openwork plate waisted in profile and formed as three cells flanked by S-coiled beasts; the upper beasts with one raised three-toed forelimb, D-shaped facing mask with pellet eyes, hatched detailing to the body, tribrach to the shoulder, clubbed tail coiled against the body; the lower beasts similar with anguiform details; the upper and lower cells D-shaped, the central one a lozenge, with a column of a hatched fish between; pierced at the upper corners and lower cell, two lateral pierced attachment lugs; ferrous remains, lug and part of a separate rivetted bronze plate to the reverse. 84 grams, 87 mm



Found whilst searching with a metal detector in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, UK, from Tuesday 1 January to Wednesday 1 May 2013. with TimeLine Auctions, 23 May 2017, no.494. Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) six page report with refence no.DENO-4207C5 and is designated as 'a find of note'. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.12077-210997.

This mount is unusual, although its decoration and manufacturing techniques point to an origin in the British Isles in the 7th-9th centuries. Its D-shaped upper face or ledge indicates that it is not the standard flat form of scabbard or harp fitting. The openwork nature of the casting is equally unusual, although the Steeple Bumpstead boss (British Museum accession no. 1916,0705.1) is formed with an openwork frame into which gilt bronze panels have been inserted, and several Irish croziers were manufactured in this manner (Bourke, 1987). The cells were probably intended to accept a glass inset gem, or an ivory or millefiori panel, although the inner panel of the central cell shows signs of having been gilded as if to reflect light through a translucent gem in the same manner as the foils placed behind the garnets on 6th-7th century Anglo-Saxon jewellery and weapon-fittings (Arrhenius, 1985; Carver, 2005). The beasts (especially the upper pair) show strong Irish influence in their design, which is found elsewhere in Northumbrian art in the 8th-9th century as for example on the brow fittings of the Coppergate helmet (Webster & Backhouse, item 47). Similar heads in profile appear on the scabbard chapes from the St. Ninian's Isle Treasure (Wilson, plate IV). The overall design of the piece is tentatively identified with the 'fish flanked by birds' motif seen for example in the Staffordshire Hoard, probably of later 7th century date.