EARLY MEDIEVAL MOUNT

850

Rectangular Carolingian-style mount made of gilded silver and inlaid with niello. It has been cast in high relief, with detailed and well made leaf and flower decoration. The mount is convex, with tall sides and a hollowed, uneven reverse which bears four integrally cast attachment lugs, one at each corner and set longitudinally. Each is pierced, but the end of each lug is considerably worn, so that two of the piercings are now worn through, on diagonally opposite corners.A central boss in the shape of a four-petalled flower is inlaid with a niello line down each petal, forming a saltire cross. From underneath each petal emerges a gilded oval leaf with grooves forming central and side veins. Between the petals, pointing to the long sides of the mount, are single small drop-shaped leaves. In the opposite spaces, extending towards the short sides of the mount, are pairs of longer arched leaves, again with grooved vein decoration, with smaller lobes (decorated with simpler but similar engraving) emerging from the centre of these pairs. At the corners of the mount are four bosses shaped like fleurs-de-lis, each again embellished with niello lines, now very worn. Between these corner bosses, the long sides are each decorated with a pair of four-petalled flowers or groups of four leaves, each with two horizontal niello lines across their squarish, ungilded centres and engraved vein decoration on each gilded petal/leaf. The short sides (one longer than the other) are each decorated with a single similar four-petalled flower or leaf, made larger on the longer side. A wavy relief line runs around the base of each corner, below the fleurs-de-lis.All the lower areas of the mount are thickly gilded, but there is no evidence of gilding on the higher, niello-decorated areas. This may possibly be due to wear rather than an original incomplete gilding. On the reverse, the edge (the very lowest flat area) bears traces of gilding.The mount is 36.9 mm long and tapers slightly from 27.0 mm wide at the wider end to 25.9 mm wide at the shorter end. The mount is c. 13 mm thick including the lugs.The finder reported that the object was tarnished almost entirely black when found. He washed the object with a brush using water and washing-up liquid.This mount can be compared with other Carolingian objects on the PAS database, also made of gilded silver and decorated in high relief with niello embellishments. Examples include ESS-BE9A25, YORYM-EAF943 and SF-E2FFD6. Similar copper-alloy examples include DENO-872273 and DENO-184477. All date from the mid 9th to the end of the 10th century AD.