EARLY MEDIEVAL MOUNT

620

Description: Gold and cloisonné garnet object. The original form of the object is hard to reconstruct, as it is now bent and broken, with four pieces surviving; some areas are still in places obscured by soil. The main decorative motif is a central circular panel 20-21mm in diameter, constructed on a backplate with a ring of cloisonné around the edge and an empty circle 14mm in diameter in the centre. The backplate is pierced by two small relatively neat circular holes and two more ragged and irregular holes, all of which are pushed through from the front and none of which are in the centre. A separate setting was presumably originally fixed here, but no trace now survives.The cloisonné ring is made up of an inner and an outer wall of gold, with eleven semi-circular cells made from small curved strips of gold. Eleven space-filling flared cells alternate with the semi-circular cells. Four of the semi-circular garnets and six of the space-filling garnets survive. Impressed foils are visible in one of the empty semi-circular and two of the empty space-filling cells (all with a criss-cross rectangular waffle pattern), and there may be more foils in some of the cells that are still filled with soil. It is clear from the inner edge of the ring that the cloisonné was built up on a separate annular backplate, not on the main backplate.Along one edge of the circle is a rectangular arm which originally projected tangentially, but is now bent behind the circle. A broken area opposite, continuing the tangential line, indicates the site of a second arm, now broken away.The spaces below the circle, at the start of both arms, are filled with more cloisonné work which then extends onto both the surviving and the broken-off arm. First comes a triangular cell; this is the only cell which survives on the broken-off arm, where it has a surviving garnet. The other arm continues with a mushroom-shaped cell on its side, then a pattern of two mushrooms stem-to-stem with a small rectangular cell joining the stems. This pattern is repeated once more to fill the arm; above and below this pattern is a row of small space-filling cells separated by vertical walls, creating a slab of cloisonné with one rectangular end and the other end emerging from the edge of the cloisonné ring. About half of the garnets on this arm survive. Foils, apparently identical to those on the ring, can be seen under one of the surviving mushroom-shaped garnets and in one mushroom cell that has lost its garnet; the missing arm has a foil underneath its triangular garnet. The slab of cloisonné is 7.0 mm wide.The slab of cloisonné within the arm is surrounded by a thin tall upright collar of gold sheet, attached to the backplate, separated slightly from the edges of the slab and bent slightly inwards as if retaining a narrow border of some organic material that now does not survive. This collar runs right round the rectangular arm and then continues around the top of the circle, but has split in two places on the base of the object where the metal has been stretched by the bending of the arm. Outside this collar is a border of beaded wire (diameter 0.7mm) running right the way round the entire object. The beaded wire was clearly made with a swage and there is a medial seam, presumably intentional, on virtually every bead.On the arm this beaded-wire border is fixed to the edge of the backplate, but at the top of the circle, for about 11mm from 11o'clock to 1 o'clock, the backplate extends beyond the beaded wire, is cut or broken and is bent over it, obscuring it in places. The edges of the cloisonné slab are straight, but the beaded wire is very slightly convex. The reverse of the arm is difficult to see but there appears to be a large ragged hole in the backplate close to the end of the arm. The weight of this fragment is 5.8g, which includes some soil.A second fragment of gold, with no garnets surviving, is the missing second arm. This is also slightly curved, with a convex base and concave upper edge; the backplate survives, together with the tall upright collar, but the slab of cloisonné is missing. The beaded-wire border survives around the edge of the backplate, but a curious feature is that the collar and beaded wire extend, bent and damaged, beyond the break in the backplate to apparently duplicate the collar and beaded wire still extant on the larger fragment of the object. There is a large ragged hole in the backplate towards the end of this arm, mirroring that in the still-joined arm. The weight of this second fragment is 1.2g.A third fragment of cloisonné is 7.4-7.6mm wide and is broken at both ends (surviving length 12.5mm). It consists of a backplate with two very slightly curved long walls soldered to it, and two offset interlocking cross-shaped cells surviving, both still set with garnets. Two T-shaped cells, again still with garnets, fill the space to either side. A third cross-shaped garnet and a third T-shaped garnet are loose, and probably came from damaged cells continuing the pattern of interlocking crosses and Ts; the damage T-shaped cell retains its foil (although this is loose) and the cross-shaped garnet has its foil still adhering to it. All foils again appear to be impressed with a rectilinear waffle pattern set on the diagonal. The third fragment, and its detached garnets, weigh 0.6g.The fourth fragment is again a slightly curving slab of cloisonné, now slightly bent. It is 7.3mm wide, with one broken end and one intact rectilinear end (surviving length 14.4mm). The cloisonné design is the same as in the previous fragment, with three interlocking cross-shaped cells, four T-shaped cells around (all with garnets surviving) and an empty L-shaped cell in the corner. The fourth fragment weighs 0.8g and the total weight of all fragments together is 8.2g.How these four fragments can be reconstructed to form a single object is at present still problematic. The arm still surviving on the circle has a rectilinear element c. 15mm long, with a tapering end perhaps another 12mm long filling the space under the circle. The detached arm has space for a rectilinear slab perhaps 20mm long, with its bent-round piece of beaded border wire adding perhaps another 10mm. The detached cloisonné slabs can be put together to form a single slab of surviving length c. 25mm and with a single broken end.The conclusion that has to be reached is that the arms must have had not only different cloisonné designs (not unusual on 7th-century Anglo-Saxon cloisonné objects) but also that they must have been of different lengths, as the rectilinear area c. 15mm long on the bent arm is matched by a rectilinear fragment c. 25mm on the detached arm. The upwards extension of the backplate, now torn and broken, beyond the beaded-wire border, suggests a suspension loop, but no parallels to the shape have been found and the original function of the object is unknown.Dimensions: Diameter of central roundel 20-21mm; length of bent right arm c.15mm; length of detached left arm c. 25mm; so total dimensions c. 60mm x c. 23mm. Maximum thickness of roundel where least crushed, 3.0mm. Weight of largest fragment, including some soil, 5.8g. Weight of second fragment (detached arm) 1.2g. Weight of third fragment, 0.6g. Weight of fourth fragment, 0.8g. Total surviving weight 8.2g.Discussion and Date: Although no parallels are known for the form of this object, and its function is consequently unknown, the technique of manufacture and the shape of the cells can be readily matched within 7th-century cloisonné work. The mushroom cell is a particularly well-studied shape, coming into use in the late 6th century and continuing until at least the middle of the 7th century. The combination of mushroom- and cross-shaped cloisons is paralleled on sword pommel StH674 from the Staffordshire Hoard. Semi-circular garnets are known from the second half of the 7th century, notably on the disc brooch from Boss Hall grave 93 (Scull 2009, fig. 2.21 (with some inaccuracies in the drawing) and cover photo). These combine to suggest that the Near Pickering mount should be dated on current evidence to the mid to late 7th century, c. 620-680 AD.