MOUNT

Description: Double-sided mount made from two similar thick niello-inlaid rectangular silver plates. The short edges are shaped, each around two rivets with a point between the two; all four separate silver rivets survive, three with circular heads at one end of 3mm diameter. Strangely, these expanded heads are set two on one face (in diagonally opposite corners) and one on the other face; the opposite ends are only 2mm in diameter and are flat. Two rivets appear to be complete and have lengths of 8.4mm and 9.1mm.

The long edges are all decorated with a row of squarish pellets (ladder pattern). In between is a rectangular panel of engraved ornament inlaid with niello. The ends of these panels are shaped to follow the edges of the rivet holes. The designs are not identical; on one face, the panel has a fan-shaped tripartite motif to either end and regular geometrical interlace in between; on the other, a zig-zag line forms five triangles, which are filled with a design which now cannot be read. The ornament is in the Trewhiddle tradition, but no elements of the style can actually be seen in the decomposed niello.

Dimensions: length 26.7mm, width 10.0mm, thickness excluding rivets 6.6mm, thickness including rivets 9.1mm. The gap between the plates is 2.25mm. Weight 8.33g.

Discussion and Date: The ornament, with ladder pattern and fan-shaped motif, is clearly very closely related to 9th-century strap-ends of Thomas's Class A, Type 1. The object itself, though, is exceptionally unusual; there is no comparable item recorded on the PAS database or in Thomas's study (Thomas 2000). It is sufficiently distinct from strap-ends (being thicker and with parallel sides) that fragments of similar objects are unlikely to have gone unrecognised as fragments of strap-ends.

The function of this mount is uncertain. Its dimensions and decoration are very close to contemporary strap-fittings, but its double-sided decoration distinguishes it from these. There are no rectangular mounts with Trewhiddle-style decoration yet recorded on the PAS database (despite a number of rectangular Carolingian-style mounts of similar or slightly later date); nor are there double-sided mounts of any shape. The Plumpton hoard, however, contained two rectangular single-sided hinged silver and niello fittings, thought to be hinges from a casket (Thomas 2013). These emphasise that unusual fittings are perhaps to be expected in a high-status milieu.