MOUNT

A silver mount dating to the early medieval 8th to 9th century AD. The silver at the edge becomes thicker towards the crown. The object is hollow, rising from a circular base with sloping sides and a rounded and conical top. The object is cone shaped and zoomorphic decorated in relief with a chip carved interlaced dragon and tail. There are also a number of grooves divided into short lengths forming arches and separating three panels with 'bridges' to hold a niello inlay, most of which has disappeared. These arched and inlaid borders converge at the apex of the object to form a spiral. There are no obvious areas of wear on the object except possibly around the dragon. The patina is greyish-silver. It is not currently known what exactly this object was used for it may have been what are called pepper pots from St Ninian's Island Treasure or more likely they may have been bosses from a cross or shrine (K. Leahy pers comm 11.04.17). The length is 20mm, width is 23mm and the weigh is 11.17g.

Discussion

This object is similar, although slightly smaller, to the three conical mounts possibly pepper pots from the St Ninian's Isle treasure (Wilson in Small et al. 1973, 60-64, nos. 12-14; Youngs 1989, nos. 99-101). These all had soldered-on baseplates with pairs of rectangular slots, with a beaded wire collar to conceal the join (Bruce-Mitford in O'Dell et al. 1959, 260-1).

The slots in the St Ninian's Isle baseplates are similar to those on the pyramidal scabbard-mounts of the seventh century AD, and the St Ninian's Isle mounts are thought to have had a similar function on some kind of strap, perhaps from a sword-scabbard. The low pyramids of the first half of the seventh century develop into taller pyramids with either square, circular or polygonal bases in the second half of the century (e.g. StH 451 and StH 1166 from the Staffordshire Hoard, and IOW-1855E4 on the Portable Antiquities Scheme's database), and the size and height of the St Ninian's Isle mounts, and 2011T690, may represent a further development in the 8th century (Wilson in Small et al. 1973, 122-3; Bruce-Mitford in O'Dell et al. 1959, 260-1 and note 32). One of the St Ninian's Isle mounts, catalogue no. 13, has chip-carved and engraved decoration, with four fields in a broadly similar style to 2011T690. The speckled animals enmeshed in interlace are similar to those on the central pin in the Witham triple pin set, dating the mount to the 8th century AD, perhaps late in the century.

The object is also similar to two objects found in Lincolnshire. A silver gilt 'pomade' from Wrawby and a silver gilt 'cone' from Louth,

Ref:

Leahy, K. The Anglo-saxon kingdom of Lindsey, pp.144, 148.

O'Dell, A.C., Stevenson, R.B.K., Brown, T.N., Plenderleith, H.J. and Bruce-Mitford, R.L.S., 1959 The St Ninian's Isle Silver Hoard, 33, Small, A., Thomas, C. and Wilson, D.M., 1973 St Ninian's Isle and Its Treasure London : Oxford University Press.