LOT 1236

Iron Age Bronze Enamelled Bridle Mount

1ST CENTURY BC-1ST CENTURY AD

2 1/2" (89 grams, 67 mm).

A cast quatrefoil bridle mount with champ leve fields of red enamel; the symmetrical design comprising a central panel with parallel sides and rounded ends, flanked by D-shaped panels with central annulet reserved against the enamel field; within the central panel a reversed s-scroll, each arm terminating in a transverse s-scrolled block with reserved pellet; the curved lines with graceful swellings in the La Tene style; two integral attachment sliders to the reverse.

Found East Anglia, UK.

Cf. the openwork bronze bridle mount plaques with La Tene decoration from Iron Age Champagne, France, published in Stead, I.M. & Rigby, V. The Morel Collection. Iron Age Antiquities from Champagne in the British Museum, figs.185-8; red enamel bronze enamel plaques in Smith, R.A. British Museum Guide to Early Iron Age Antiquities, plate VIII.