Late Anglo-Saxon Gilt Bronze Cloisonne Brooch

With openwork design of two serpents interlaced, each with billeted body and lentoid eyes, ropework border to the shorter sides; old collector's accession numbers to the underside '91.115' and '15871'. 10.9 grams, 46 mm



UK collection formed 1970s-1990s. Ex property of an English gentleman.

The decorative pattern of this mount is similar to what, according to S. West, is an Anglo-Saxon die found in Suffolk, where legless animal forms are represented lying head to tail, with beaded bodies within a beaded border. Also here the animals are showing interlaced jaws and headed bodies, all contained in a border.

Squat vessel with rounded underside, gusseted neck and carinated mouth with inner lip; stamped frond decoration to the shoulder and body, arched stamp pattern between; underside with impressed ropework spiral pattern. 497 grams, 14 cm wide



Ex English private collection, formed in the 1960s. Acquired from Bonhams, London, 13 April 2011, no.245 (part). From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent. Accompanied by copies of the relevant Bonhams catalogue pages and the original Bonhams lot tag.

Squat vessel, cylindrical in form with lateral D-shaped lugs at the rim, each pierced to accept a bronze drop-handle with returned ends; the outer face with decorative frieze executed in pointillé technique with pellets between the bands consisting of (1) an upper band of running zigzags with fill; (2) clusters of three pellets; (3) sinuous curved line with fronds in the voids; (4) repeat of (2); (5) repeat of (1); underside with three soldered silver panels, possibly ancient repairs. 527 grams, 18.5 cm wide



Found East Anglia, believed Cambridgeshire, UK. From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

The vessel is formally similar to the group of bronze vessels believed to have been made in Antioch in the 6th century, which have been recovered from 6th-7th century grave fields in England (Carver, 2005; Mango et al, 1989) and from sites in the Mediterranean area (see Drandaki, n.d.). While it lacks the elaborate hunting scenes and Greek inscriptions of the more complex examples, it shows most of the same decorative and constructional features.