EARLY MEDIEVAL SLEEVE CLASP

470

Sheet with a line of five repousse dots off centre, engraved ‘S’-shape decoration on the attachment end. Two circular holes at the attachment end one corner of which is missing and a rectangular hole opposite the front of which is missing. Helen Geake writes: From the image, this appears to be a catch-piece from a wrist-clasp of Hines’s Form B7, made from a piece of copper-alloy sheet. The clasp is rectangular, with a longitudinal line of five repoussé bosses towards the front edge, some of which are now perforated. In front of these is a long thin perforation forming the catch, which is now broken through. The rear of the clasp is filled with a rectangular panel of fine engraving forming ‘S’ shapes, and, although incomplete, two circular sewing holes can be seen in this panel. Wrist-clasps are early Anglo-Saxon and date to the late 5th or 6th centuries AD.