TimeLine Originals

Anglo-Saxon ‘Floriate Cross and Masks’ Saucer Brooch 024139

tanja — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:05:29 +0000

Gilt copper-alloy, 38.33 grams, 58.86 mm. Circa 5th-6th century AD. A cast copper-alloy saucer brooch with chip-carved decoration on the gilded face. The rim is broad and flared, surrounding a central plate with chamfered border. The central motif is a floriate cross between four helmetted faces similar to those on button brooches; around this is a band of Style I faces between folded leg motifs. To the reverse, the pin lugs and remains of the catchplate are in place, slight restoration of the rim. Reference: cf. the saucer brooch from Berinsfield, Oxfordshire, published in MacGregor, A. & Bolick, E. A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections (Non-Ferrous Metals), item 2.48. Very fine condition, gilding largely intact. Provenance: from an old English collection.

Hiberno-Saxon ‘Zoomorphic’ Scabbard Chape 023669

tanja — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:32:07 +0000

Copper-alloy, 29.28 grams, 38.49 mm. Circa 7th-9th century AD. A cast c-shaped copper-alloy facing mount with hollow underside. The lateral arms are each formed as a grotesque male head with elliptical eyes and a band across the nose. From each ovoid mouth issues a bilinear strap which develops into a bird with a ribbed tear-drop wing, and long neck curled around its leg, the head tucked in beneath the wing. The workmanship is substantial with well-defined raised outer borders reminiscent of 6th-7th century chip-carving; the bird’s coiled neck and leg recalls elements of design on the Book of Kells, Book of Mullings and Lindisfarne Gospels. The male faces recall the figures on the Breac Maodhog Shrine from Drumlane, Ireland. References: Wallace, P.F. & O Floinn, R. Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland. Irish Antiquities, Dublin, 2002 p.254 and Webster, L. & Backhouse, J. The Making of England. Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900, London, 1991. Very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection.

Anglo-Saxon ‘Running Spirals’ Saucer Brooch 024088

tanja — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:26:23 +0000

Gilt copper-alloy, 14.14 grams, 36.80 mm. Circa 5th-6th century AD. A cast copper-alloy saucer brooch with chip-carved decoration on the gilded face. The rim is shallow, surrounding a flat central plate. The central motif is a low boss surrounded by a ring, around this is a series of six running spirals extending to the outer chamfered ring with notched upper edge. To the reverse, the pin lugs and remains of the catchplate are in place. Reference: cf. the saucer brooch from Berinsfield, Oxfordshire, published in MacGregor, A. & Bolick, E. A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections (Non-Ferrous Metals), item 2.6 with similar spiral motif. Very fine condition, pale gilding mostly intact. Provenance: found Cambridgeshire, UK.

Anglo-Saxon ‘Class Ai’ Button Brooch 024028

tanja — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:24:45 +0000

Gilt copper-alloy, 4.10 grams, 18.94 mm. Circa 5th-6th century AD. A cast copper-alloy button brooch with heavily gilded face. The brooch features a sharply turned rim and chamfered border with notched edges surrounding a stylised male face with helmet, pellet eyes above bulbous cheeks and elliptical mouth. To the reverse the attachment points for a pin-lug and catchplate are visible. Button brooches of Class Ai are generally of fine workmanship with a carefully-modelled face and precise notching to the border. Reference: Avent, R. & Evison, V.I. Anglo-Saxon Button Brooches in Archaeologia, vol.CVII, 1982. Very fine condition, gilding substantially intact. Provenance: found East Anglia.

Late Anglo-Saxon / Viking ‘Quatrefoil’ Horse Harness Mount 023659

tanja — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:19:42 +0000

Silvered copper-alloy, 25.35 grams, 51.91 mm. Late 10th century AD. A conical circular harness mount with four pierced lobe extensions and central piercing. The surface is ornamented with four circular panels, two with lobed crosses, one with a small expanding cross in centre, and the fourth with a curled beast or snake? Reference: Cf. The Benedictional of St. Athelwold and London gospel book fragments in Backhouse, J., Turner, D.H. and Webster, L. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art: 966-1066, London, 1984 items 37, 38. Fine condition. Provenance: found Co Durham, UK.

Anglo-Scandinavian / Viking ‘Oseberg Style’ Horse Bridle Strap Mount 024447

tanja — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:18:23 +0000

Copper-alloy, 11.43 grams, 49.27 mm. Circa mid-8th-mid-9th century AD. A cast copper-alloy bridle strap mount with Oseberg Style beast modelled in the half-round, the sinuous limbs contorted around the body which is formed as a bulbous chest and slender lower area. The head is placed above, facing, with small pellet eyes and arched brow. The mount features a rectangular loop to one end, and two circular piercings in the beast’s body to accept attachment rivets. Formally, the mount resembles strap ends of Thomas’s Class G with a twisted zoomorph at the lower end which probably derive from objects of this type. Reference: cf. Thomas, G. Late Anglo-Saxon and Viking -Age Strap-Ends 750-1100, Part 21, London, 2004 items 36-7. Very fine condition, complete. Provenance: found Haverhill, Suffolk, UK.

Romano-British ‘Bow and Fantail’ Brooch 023875

tanja — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:21:37 +0000

Copper-alloy, 2.99 grams, 21.58 mm. 1st-2nd century AD. A cast copper-alloy lower element from a bow-and-fantail brooch with catchplate to the reverse. The face is detailed with three lozenges reserved against a rectangular field; some red and blue enamel remaining, pin lost in antiquity. Reference: Hattatt, R. Brooches of Antiquity, Oxford, 1987 item 818. Very fine condition. Provenance: found Cleveland, UK.

Anglo-Norman ‘Beast Heads’ Swivel Ring 019736

tanja — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:09:53 +0000

Copper-alloy, 8.48 grams, 32.61 mm. Circa 12th century AD. A cast ring-mount in the form of a collared loop with a larger ring emerging, decorated with hatching and with a beast-head profile at each end. Reference: Mills, N. Medieval Artefacts, Witham, 2003, p.19. Very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection.

Anglo-Norman ‘Horseman’ Sword Chape 022185

tanja — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:07:55 +0000

Copper-alloy, 11.61 grams, 33.94 mm. Circa 12th century AD. A cast openwork chape for a leather sheath, of Woods’s Type V. The design features a horseman modelled in the half-round advancing to the right, within a tracery of foliage. There is a single attachment rivet in the rider’s waist and holes for two more on the lower edge. Woods has conjectured that the motif represents a hunting scene, and that the sheath to which it was attached held a hunting-knife. Reference: Woods, P. A Group of Late Saxon and Early Norman Dagger Chapes in Medieval Archaeology, (forthcoming). Very fine condition. Provenance: found Oxfordshire, UK.

Anglo-Norman ‘Upsilon’ Girdle Hanger 023676

tanja — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:05:42 +0000

Copper-alloy, 43.61 grams, 114 mm. Circa 11th-12th century AD. A cast copper-alloy fitting in the form of a round-section shank with two flat-section recurved terminals. The upper end of the hanger is a bulb, pierced transversely from which the shank emerges. At the lower end, a triangular panel is flanked by ribbing extending to a plain transverse collar. From the collar issues a palmette, developing into two curved zoomorphs executed in Romanesque style, each with scale texturing to the neck, a curled beak and roundel eye. Reference: cf. a very similar late 11th century beast-head carved in walrus ivory from Winchester cathedral in Backhouse, J., Turner, D.H. and Webster, L. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art: 966-1066, London, 1984 item 275. Very fine condition. Provenance: found Essex, UK.