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The Limpsfield Grange disc

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Elisabeth Okasha  and
Susan Youngs
Elisabeth Okasha
Affiliation:
University College, Cork
Susan Youngs
Affiliation:
The British Museum, London
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Extract

In March 1992 a diminutive decorated disc was submitted for comment to the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities, British Museum. The owner had found it by using a metal detector in an arable field south of the M25 motorway at Limpsfield Grange in the parish of Limpsfield near Oxted, Surrey (NGR TQ 4053). The disc appeared to be an isolated find and a Coroner's Inquest was not held. The piece was subsequendy sent for auction and acquired by the British Museum acting in cooperation with Guildford Museum. There is no Anglo-Saxon material recorded from the immediate area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 25 , December 1996 , pp. 63 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Information supplied by the finder; an account was published by Hunt, D., ‘The Story of a Little Gold Disc’, The Searcher (06 1993), 42.Google Scholar

2 Sotheby's Works of Art Sale, 07 1993Google Scholar; British Museum registration MLA 1993, 10–1, 1.Google Scholar

3 These are semi-quantitative results by x-ray fluorescence provided by the British Museum Department of Scientific Research.

4 Analysis and observation made by Susan La Niece, British Museum Department of Scientific Research; see also Niece, S. La, ‘Niello: an Historical and Technical Survey’, AntJ 63 (1983), 279–97, at 286–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Okasha, E., ‘The Non-Runic Scripts of Anglo-Saxon Inscriptions’, Trans. of the Cambridgeshire Bibliographical Soc. 4 (1964–1968), 321–38, especially Table Ia.Google Scholar

6 Nos. 178 and 172 respectively in Okasha, E., ‘A Supplement to Hand-List of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions’, ASE 11 (1983), 83–118.Google Scholar

7 For a general survey of the metalwork characteristic of this period, see Wilson, D. M., Anglo-Saxon Art (London, 1984), pp. 94–6.Google Scholar

8 The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600–900, ed. Webster, L. and Backhouse, J. (London, 1991), nos. 201, 203–4 and 243–4.Google Scholar

9 These are respectively Laverstock, no. 70 and Sherburn, no. 107 in Okasha, E., Hand-list of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions (Cambridge, 1971).Google Scholar

10 Ibid. no. 86 from Llysfaen.

11 Wilson, D. M., Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700–1100 in the British Museum: Catalogue of Antiquities of the Later Saxon Period (London, 1964), pp. 21–35Google Scholar; Wilson, , Anglo-Saxon Art, p. 96.Google Scholar

12 Ezek. I.5–11 and Rev. IV.6; Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. Cabrol, F. and Leclerq, H., 15 vols. in 30 (Paris, 1907–1953) V.1, cols. 846–51Google Scholar; Okasha, E. and O'Reilly, J., ‘An Anglo-Saxon Portable Altar; Inscription and Iconography’, Jnl the Courtauld and Warburg Institutes 47 (1984), 32–51, at 41–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Henderson, G., From Durrow to Kells. The Insular Gospel-Books 650–800 (London, 1987), p. 43.Google Scholar

13 Dublin, Trinity College Library, A. 4. 5 (57) (Columban, s. vii2), 84v; Werner, M., ‘The Four Evangelist Symbols Page in the Book of Durrow’, Gesta 8 (1969), 3–17, at 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Alexander, J. J. G., Insular Manuscripts from the 6th to the 9th Centuries (London, 1978), ill. 17Google Scholar; Henderson, , Durrow to Kells, pp. 24, 43.Google Scholar

14 Okasha, , ‘A Supplement to Hand-List’, no. 159, and Making of England, ed. Webster, and Backhouse, , no. 66(a).Google Scholar

15 Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork, no. 153.

16 Okasha, Hand-List, no. 33.

17 Dodwell, C. R., Anglo-Saxon Art a New Perspective (Manchester, 1982), pp. 188–215.Google Scholar

18 Ross, M. C., Byzantine and Early Medieval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1962) II: Jewelery, Enamels and Art of the Migration Period, no. 78.Google Scholar

19 Ibid. nos. 70, 71 and 78.

20 London, private collection; detailed information was kindly supplied by Dr Noël Adams.

21 Grabar, A., Christian Iconography: a Study of its Origins (London, 1969), p. 113.Google Scholar

22 Stockholm, Royal Library, A. 135 (Canterbury, s. viiimed), 150v; Alexander, Insular Manuscripts, ill. 147.

23 Dublin, Trinity College library, 52 (Armagh, c. 807 AD), 32v and 68v; Alexander, Insular Manuscripts, ills. 226 and 230.

24 Cambridge, University Library, L1. 1. 10 (Mercia, s. ix1), 31 v; Alexander, Insular Manuscripts, no. 66, ill. 314.

25 Backhouse, J., Turner, D. and Webster, L., The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966–1066 (London, 1984), no. 75.Google Scholar

26 Our thanks go to colleagues who have examined the disc and commented on the text, namely Noël Adams, Michelle Brown and Leslie Webster, and also to Matthew Alexander of Guildford Museum and David Williams, who both worked to secure it for a public collection.