Details

IPSMG:R.2015.14

Ipswich Collections

mount, gold and garnet mount

An incomplete gold and cloisonné garnet mount in the form of the upper body of a bird of prey in profile looking left, now slightly crushed and distorted. The bird has a curving pointed beak, a rounded head and waisted neck, The mount was made from a gold backplate, with beaded-wire filigree soldered around its edge so that it is visible from both front and reverse. The beaded wire is c. 0.8-0.9mm in diameter and was made by using a swage to form rather irregular, angular beads, several with a medial seam or Äquatorschnitt. Attached to the front of the backplate are seven cells or cloisons made from gold walls, presumably soldered on, with the tops originally burred and polished over but now distorted in many places. The cells comprise the beak, a circular eye (now badly crushed), and a comma-shaped field behind the eye which may be an ear or lappet. There are two back-to-back crescents which may represent the bird's wings, and these divide what may be a wide neck or short body into two separate cells. There are surviving garnets in the beak, upper body/neck and lower body/neck; this last cell has very thin garnets only just visible in the base of the cell. There are no foils visible in any of the cells. There are also four tiny rivet holes, created from vertical cylinders of gold attached next to the edges of the backplate, outside the garnet-set cells but inside the filigree border. These are positioned at the top and bottom edges of the base of the beak of the bird and at either corner of the lower edge of the mount; where well-preserved they measure 2mm in diameter externally and 1.1mm in diameter internally.

0600 - 0699

7th Century, Medieval, early

gold, garnet