MOUNT

Description: Rectangular Carolingian-style silver mount, partly gilded and inlaid with niello, and decorated with Carolingian-style plant ornament. The front of the mount, which has high, curved sides, is decorated in relief, the higher-relief sections of the design inlaid with niello and the lower-relief sections gilded. The selective gilding appears to be deliberate, rather than the result of wear on the higher relief elements of the design.

The design is centred around an X-shaped cross in high relief, with the arms curving inwards to form two back-to-back C shapes (when the mount is viewed with the long edges horizontal) or point-to-point heart shapes (when the mount is viewed with the short edges horizontal). The cross is inlaid with a complex niello pattern consisting of central longitudinal lines, arrows towards the centre and transverse lines dividing the arms from their bifurcated foliate terminals.

In the centre of each long edge is a lozengiform or oval high-relief moulding, probably intended as leaf-shaped, with tri-lobed niello inlay, surrounded by a gilded, lower-relief, triangular veined leaf with scalloped edges, which fills the internal angles of the central cross.

In the centre of each short edge is a high-relief moulding consisting of two similar leaf shapes, each with a trilobed inlay, in mirror-image and separated from each other by a central band inlaid with two transverse lines of niello. These are again surrounded by a gilded, lower-relief, triangular veined leaf with scalloped edges, which fills the internal angles of the central cross.

The lower leaf-shaped motifs extend to the edges of each side. On the short edges, they are flanked by veined, opposed leaves without gilding and perhaps originally with niello in the veining. On the long edges, they are flanked by smooth, perhaps worn quarter-circle bosses, each with an inlaid strip of niello on the upper edge.

The reverse is deeply recessed, with an off-centre sub-circular blind hole, probably a casting flaw. The rim around the hollowed reverse has two integral, rectangular-sectioned attachment spikes projecting from the short edges. Both spikes taper very slightly to breaks and are now slightly bent. The breaks at either end of the spikes are not very recent, but are not very worn and are slightly granular in the centre.

Dimensions: length 25mm, width 19mm, thickness (excluding attachment spikes) 6.5mm. Maximum surviving length of attachment spike 9.5mm. Weight 12.1g.

Discussion and Date: Similar mounts and strap-ends with the same style of decoration are recorded on the PAS database from Suffolk (SF-E2FFD6 and ESS-BE9A25), North Yorkshire (YORYM-EAF943), unprovenanced (FAHG-123AB4) and Norfolk (NMS-5BAC02). They all date from the mid 9th to the end of the 10th century AD.

Field L4