Record ID: KENT2656 - EARLY MEDIEVAL tag

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TAG

Unique ID: KENT2656

Object type certainty: Certain

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Late Anglo-Saxon hooked tag, silver inlaid with niello. The tag is triangular in shape with a well formed hook at the apex and an egg-and-dart border at the base. Three clean piercings for attachment to fabric or leather lie between this border and the inner fields. Both long sides are defined with a single, deeply incised line, emphasised with short diagonal slashes on the outside. Within the border, the decorative field is filled with three triangular zones arranged base/apex, apex/base, base/apex. The outer two each contain a single elegantly formed Trewhiddle-style animal against a niello field. The animal, with pricked ears and open jaws, looks backward over its elongated body; its front paw is raised and its back leg stretches to fill the apex of the triangle. The third field contains an irregularly defined palmette motif within a niello field. The lower margin of the plate is separated from the hook by triple geometric mouldings above an incised cross. The tag is in exceptionally good condition and dates from the last quarter of the 9th century.

88% silver.

Notes:

Discussion: Hooked tags fall into two main groups, those with rounded plates and those that are triangular or subtriangular, to which this example belongs (compare catalogue nos. 196-200 in J Backhouse and L Webster (eds), The Making of England, Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture, AD 600-900
(London, 1991)). Many have attachment lugs rather than the simple piercings that this example shows. The ornament, particularly the individual animals in the two leading panels, is exceptionally well executed in classic Trewhiddle style - a design style current in Anglo-Saxon England in the late 9th century and named after the type site of Trewhiddle, Cornwall, where a hoard of metalwork was discovered in 1774. The hoard was deposited about 868. The tag is best compared to a pair with sub-triangular plates from Cathedral Green, Winchester (J Backhouse and L Webster, op. cit., catalogue no. 200), decorated with foliate panels. The mouldings between the nielloed panels and the hook are close in design to the moulded terminals of one of the silver mounts from the Trewhiddle hoard itself (D M Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700-1100 in the British Museum
(London, 1994), catalogue no. 94).

Found March 1998 before current Treasure numbering system, originally reported as MLA 110

Class: Hook Tag

Subsequent actions

Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder after being disclaimed as Treasure

Treasure details

Treasure case tracking number: MLA110

Chronology

Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Ascribed Culture: Anglo-Saxon [scope notes| view all attributed records]
Date from: Circa AD 875
Date to: Circa AD 900

Dimensions and weight

Length: 45 mm
Width: 21 mm
Weight: 5.8 g
Quantity: 1

Materials and construction

Primary material: Silver [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Manufacture method: Cast [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Completeness: Complete [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Surface Treatment: Inlaid with enamel [scope notes | view all attributed records]

Spatial data

Region: South East And London
County: Kent
District: Canterbury
To be known as: KENT BARHAM

Method of discovery: Metal detector [scope notes]
General landuse: Cultivated land [scope notes]
Specific landuse: Character undetermined [scope notes]

Discovery dates

Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 1st March 1998

Personal details

Found by: This information is restricted for your login.
Recorded by: Michael Lewis - [ view all attributed records]
Identified by: Angela Evans - [view all attributed records]

Other reference numbers

Other reference: TAR 1998-1999 78
Treasure case number: MLA110

References cited

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