FINGER RING

An incomplete Late Anglo-Saxon gold finger ring. The back-plate of the bezel and hoop are constructed from a single piece of gold sheet, expanding to form triangular shoulders before the circular bezel. The hoop is broken at the edge of the bezel on one side, and distorted; perhaps half survives. The bezel is domed, with a large central pellet surrounded by an inner circle of seven pellets (one of which is missing) and an outer circle of pellets, eight of which survive, two of which may be missing. The inner and outer circle of pellets are linked in pairs by opposed filigree wire 'c' shapes, the ends of which spiral around the pellets. The pellet and filigree pattern has been arranged unevenly, and there is a seventh 'c' shaped scroll and pellets fitted in, where six or eight would have been more aesthetic. There is a circle of filigree around the central pellet, and a border of filigree around the edge of the bezel held by claws on either side of the shoulders formed from pointed projections from the edge of the back-plate, one of which is missing and two of which are broken.

Diameter of bezel 21.5g. Weight 4.1g.

A similar example was recorded from Kirk Deighton, North Yorkshire (Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Annual Report 2007, 357, no.212; 2007T334, YORYM-32E6E6), with oval bezel, granulation and filigree, but with beaded wire rather than twisted and with a central setting. The present example is less expertly made, and its use of square-section twisted wire is unusual. The same type of wire was used in the large garnet-set finger-ring from the West Yorkshire hoard (SWYOR-F86A02), but to make the hoop rather than as decoration. Both of these finger-rings are 10th-century in date, and so a similar date is proposed for the present example.