2001-01-30 00:00:00 Michael Lewis mlewis 2012-03-27 14:16:27 Matt Butler mattbutler KENT2656 TAG 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. 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 wi... 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 Silver Cast EARLY MEDIEVAL EARLY MEDIEVAL EARLY MEDIEVAL 875 900 21 45 Complete 2001-01-30 00:00:00 KENT CANTERBURY POINT( ) Calculated from parish centroid TR24NW TR2049 29.06.2003 Metal detector 1 PAS Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike - The Portable Antiquities Scheme 2001 These records can be reproduced in a non commercial enviroment as long as the original recorder is cited. The Portable Antiquities Scheme info@finds.org.uk No fees are applicable.