LOT 0411

High-Status 'Ryedale' Anglo-Saxon Bronze Hanging Bowl with Enamelled Chip-Carved Mounts

RYEDALE, NORTH YORKSHIRE, 550-570 A.D.

7 1/2 in. (9 in.) (303 grams, 19 cm (720 grams total, 23 cm including stand)).

An excessively rare and almost complete copper-alloy hanging bowl and associated fittings, comprising: (i) the bowl with three attached matching hooked escutcheons and suspension rings; (ii) the basal disc with separate frame; (iii) a body fragment (or repair patch); (iv) a curved bronze fragment; (iv) a curved copper-alloy strip (v) four skeletal fragments from a sheep or similar; accompanied by a high quality custom-made display stand.

Found whilst searching with a metal detector in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, UK, on Sunday 5th February 2023 by Chris Ulliott.

Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme report no.YORYM-59523A.
Accompanied by a handwritten signed letter from the finder explaining the circumstances of finding.
Accompanied by a copy of a signed Art Loss Register declaration no.S00236559, dated 18th September 2023, and an Interpol search certificate dated 3 October 2023.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12441-225438.

Old bucket turns out to be 'excessively rare' Anglo-Saxon Bowl, BBC News, 1 September 2023 (copy included).

Cf. Bruce-Mitford, R., The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial. Vol. 3, London, 1983, p.206-239, for Sutton Hoo Mound 1 bowl; Bruce-Mitford, R., Ireland and the Hanging Bowls - A Review in Ryan, M., Ireland and Insular Art AD500-1200, Dublin, 1985, for discussion of types;
Bruce-Mitford, R., The Corpus of Late Celtic Hanging-Bowls with An Account of the Bowls Found in Scandinavia, London, 2005, for full discussion of the type; Carver, M., Sutton Hoo. A Seventh Century Princely Burial Ground and its Context, London, 2005, p.261, for discussion of Sutton Hoo Mound 2 bowl and other finds.

Hanging-bowls are high-status vessels with origins in the Roman period which continued in use only in Britain and Ireland. They appear in burial contexts which date them to the sixth to late seventh century. The form of this example is paralleled by the bowl from Hadleigh Road, Ipswich, Suffolk (British Museum accession number 1984,0103.9) which has a similar shape and kite-shaped escutcheons secured by three rivets (Bruce-Mitford, 2005, Corpus No. 86).