LOT 1037

Anglo-Saxon Bronze Interlaced Dragons Pressblech Die

6TH-7TH CENTURY AD

3" (27 grams, 76mm).

A cast die formed with an elaborate serpent motif executed as a series of recurring loops with solid outlines and pelletted fill, a small eye-and-brow in the upper (narrower) corners, a loop in the lower left and a simple knot in the lower right, all within a pelletted border.

From the collection of Lord McAlpine of West Green; found East Anglia, UK, in 1972.

Cf. the Icklingham dies in West, S. A Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Finds From Suffolk, East Anglian Archaeology 84, Ipswich, 1998, items 56.1,2.

The construction and design of the die is similar to the famous examples from Icklingham, Suffolk, but the present piece has a curved profile which suggests that it was for application to a curved surface, such as the shoulder of a drinking vessel, or possibly laid flat around the boss of a shield: pressed foil plates (Pressblechs) are found in these positions in the burial goods from Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo, with parallels elsewhere.