Details

LOT 681

Anglo-Saxon Gilt Bronze Harness Mount

(Gilt bronze, 22 grams, 47 mm.).

Circa 6th-7th century AD. A cast gilt bronze harness mount comprising a flat disc decorated with four panels of Style II interlace, one with a serpent's head, separated by bars with guilloche ornament and surrounded by a billetted border; the centre a pierced disc of bone; the remains of a rectangular extension to one side; on the reverse, four pierced attachment lugs.

Provenance

From the private collection of R Winterton, acquired from the finder in 2009.

Literature

Cf. very similar mount published in Mills, N. Saxon and Viking Artefacts, item AS147.

Footnotes

Broad disc mounts of this kind were present on the horse harness discovered in Mound 17 at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, the presumed grave of a junior member of the East Anglian royal house.

CONDITION