Anglo-Saxon Gilt Chip-Carved Pin Head with Floral Cross

CIRCA 9TH CENTURY A.D.

1 3/4 in. (9.41 grams, 46 mm).

A large gilt copper-alloy pin head of discoid form, displaying a central knop and stylised chip-carved flower head cross with scrolling volutes to the head of each of four petals and tendrils between; perforated lug to the apex; later secondary piercing beside the rim and ferrous rivet.

Provenance

Found UK.
Acquired in the 1990s.
From a North Yorkshire private collection, UK.

Literature

See Hinton, D.A., Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins, Oxford, 2006, plate D, for similar.

Footnotes

The item began as one of a set of pin-heads for the headdress of a high-status female. Subsequently the edge was pierced in two places and a rivet passed through one hole - if the other hole also accepted a rivet it has been lost. The floral decoration terminates in narrow triangular vine-leaf motifs which appear elsewhere in Trewhiddle Style art.

CONDITION

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LOT 0270