Byzantine Silver Stamp Seal with Bird

Including a book-clamp with sliding catch, belt buckle with trefoil plate and other items. 51.8 grams total, 14-96 mm



From the private collection of Mr Brian Edwards, New Malden, Surrey, UK, formed from the late 1970s-early 1980s; thence by descent.

Comprising: two strap ends with openwork decoration of bifurcated scrolls and volutes; a buckle with an arched loop and cast tongue mounted on a shield-shaped plate decorated in a similarly abstract vegetal scheme. 51.5 grams total, 47-89 mm



Acquired on the European art market.

The high quality of execution, formal consistency, and use of silver suggest these fittings once adorned the belt of a military or aristocratic figure within a frontier or provincial context. Their design is representative of the transitional material culture of the early Byzantine world, in which classical motifs were abstracted and reinterpreted through regional aesthetic idioms. This ensemble belongs to the broader category of Early Byzantine personal dress fittings, and is closely related to the Martynivka Hoard—a group of silver artefacts discovered near Kanev (modern Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine) before 1909. Now divided between the British Museum and the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, the hoard includes strap ends and buckles of closely comparable design and manufacture. While their precise cultural attribution remains debated, the prevailing scholarly consensus situates them within the orbit of Byzantine provincial production, possibly influenced by or intended for Slavic, nomadic, or client populations in the Pontic steppe region. Similar artefacts have been recovered from Kerch in Crimea, further supporting the view that such belt fittings were widely disseminated in Byzantine-controlled or influenced regions along the northern Black Sea during the 6th and 7th centuries. Their function was not merely practical; richly decorated belts of this kind were important signifiers of rank, allegiance, and imperial favour.

Slender round-section hoop with an oval bezel bearing a monogram, the hoop split. 4.58 grams, 24.60 mm overall, 21.30 mm internal diameter (approximate size British U 1/2, USA 10 1/4, Europe 23.15, Japan 22)



Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.