Early Anglo-Saxon inlaid metalwork

Vera I. Evison

doi:10.1017/S0003581500048587

Early Anglo-Saxon inlaid metalwork

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011

Vera I. Evison

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One of the techniques employed by the Anglo-Saxon jeweller has hitherto been ignored, or at least passed over as being foreign, and the intention here is to bring it to more general notice. The relevant material is more plentiful than has been suspected, and a closer examination of objects already in museums or now being taken from the earth will aid investigations, and perhaps increase the value of the objects themselves as exhibits. Further studies in the subject may provide useful additions to the defective criteria perforce used in dating early Anglo-Saxon objects.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 35 , Issue 1-2 , April 1955 , pp. 20 - 45

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500048587 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1955

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^{page 20 note 1} Although there are occasional points of similarity to contemporary niello work, these appear to be fortuitous and of no value to the present study.

^{page 20 note 2} G. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England, iii, 175.

^{page 20 note 3} Leeds, E. T., Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology (1936), 18–19Google Scholar, pl. vii b.

^{page 20 note 4} It is to be hoped that the method of cleaning by means of burring with a dentist's drill so successfully used abroad will soon be adopted in this country. The method is set out, e.g., in E. Salin and A. France Lanord, Le Fer à l'époque mérovingienne (1943), pp. 12 ff.

^{page 21 note 1} There are various shafts of spoons, styli, or instruments with inlaid decoration ranging from simple to complex designs, e.g. British Museum Reg. nos. 56.7–1.1162, 63.12–11.8 and 10; Arch. Cant. xviii, 207; C. Roach Smith, Coll. Ant. iii, pl. xxxiv, 3; and inlaid inkwell-tops: British Museum Reg. nos. 74.12–28.29, 56.7–1.1226, etc.

^{page 21 note 2} Emergency excavations recently supervised by the writer on behalf of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, Ministry of Works.

^{page 21 note 3} Nos. 36808 and 37153.

^{page 22 note 1} The Sutton Hoo helmet has silver wires inlaid in its iron crest, but is omitted as it appears to be Swedish.

^{page 22 note 2} Other franciscas with inlaid decoration are: Grave 846 in the recently excavated cemetery at Rhenen, Holland; an early-fifth-century date is indicated for this by the associated finds which include a shallow glass bowl with cut rim and the magnificent chip-carved belt-fittings—Berichten van de Rijksdienst voor het oudheidkundig bodemonderzoek in Nederland, Jaargang IV, ii, p. 32, pl. 11, 2; from Venlo, N. Zuid Limburg in Rijks-museum G. M. Kamm, Nijmegen; and E. Salin and A. France Lanord, op. cit., p. 105 mention ‘au musée de Guben (Brandebourg) une hache offrant une damasquinure de laiton représentant un animal fabuleux’.

^{page 22 note 3} Reg. no. U.1948.10–2, provenance unknown.

^{page 22 note 4} Holmqvist, W., op. cit., Abb. 21, 2.Google Scholar

^{page 22 note 5} Idem , Abb. 17, 1–5.

^{page 22 note 6} Idem , Abb. 25, 3.

^{page 22 note 7} Annales Soc. Arch. de Namur, xv, fig. on p. 315, and G. Baldwin Brown, The Arts and Crafts of Our Teutonic Forefathers, pl. xxvi, 101.

^{page 22 note 8} L'Abbé Cochet, La Normandie souterraine, 1854, pl. xii, 4; E. T. Leeds, op. cit. 1936, fig. 4.

^{page 23 note 1} For a discussion of these early Christian motifs, see Leeds, E. T., op. cit. 1936, pp. 13–19.Google Scholar

^{page 23 note 2} There are a number of continental examples with this design. It is obviously inspired by the late Roman bronze buckles with incised decoration, e.g. Idem , pl. v.

^{page 23 note 3} The plate in the Sammlung Diergardt, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, seems to be an imitation of a plate in relief such as that at Alfriston, Grave 24, for apart from a general similarity of design, a spiky outline is noticeable on both. The motifs present in various objects are: circle-and-dot, star in circle, lines spiked usually on one side only, lines of small triangles, scrolls, trellis-work, tangented circles either with a wavy line to imitate a running tendril or arranged to imitate a cable border (pl. iv, d, and see note 5, p. 36). It must be noted that the purse-mount from High Down (pl. vi, a) has the spiky line border, and one of the motifs on its repousse sheet is similar to the cross with bifurcated curling ends in the inlaid plate from High Down (pl. vi, d), although its motif of a short line ending in a dot does not seem to occur on other English examples.

^{page 23 note 4} The buckle from Mitcham, Surrey, illustrated by Baldwin Brown, Arts, iii, pl. LXXV, 3, may belong to this series, but efforts to trace it have not so far succeeded.

^{page 26 note 1} W. Holmqvist, op. cit., Abb. 7, 2–3; cf. J. Pilloy, Études sur d'anciens lieux de sépultures dans l'Aisne, ii, 44: ‘la lance avait été damasquinée ou incrustée d'argent: on distingue encore des filets verticaux entre lesquels ondulent des rinceaux garnis de feuilles et de fruits, des zigzags, des dents de loup, etc.’

^{page 26 note 2} Holmqvist, W., op. cit., Abb. 34.Google Scholar

^{page 26 note 3} Idem , Abb. 33.

^{page 26 note 4} A buckle-plate from Düsseldorf-Oberlörick is in fish-scale design, but, of course, this is really only an arrangement of circle segments: Böhner, K., ‘Fränkische Gräber von Oberlörick im Stadtkreis Düsseldorf’ Banner Jahrbücher, cli (1951), 317Google Scholar, Taf. 27, 2. c.

^{page 26 note 5} B. Brown, op. cit. iii, pl. LXI, 1–2, iv, pl. G. 3.

^{page 26 note 6} E. T. Leeds, op. cit. 1936, pl. 11, a and b, pl. iii, a.

^{page 26 note 7} B. Salin, Die altgermanische Thierornamentik, fig. 476; Arch. liv, 374, pl. XXVII, 8.

^{page 27 note 1} Arch. lv, pl. ix, 2.

^{page 27 note 2} E. T. Leeds, op. cit. 1936, pl. iii, d; Sussex A.C. lvi, pl. ix, 1.

^{page 27 note 3} G. Behrens, ‘Spätrömische Kerbschnittschnal-len’, Schumacher Festschrift, 1930, 285–94, Abb. 10 and 11. It also occurs on northern objects of the Sösdala type, e.g. Acta Arch. ii, Abb. 7, 8, Abb. 12 and 13.

^{page 27 note 4} E. T. Leeds, ‘The Distribution of the Angles and Saxons archaeologically considered’, Arch., xci, p. 101 and figs. 3, 23 g and h, and fig. 24; cf. H. Kühn, Die germanischen Bügelfibeln der Völker-wanderungszeit in der Rheinprovinz, 1940, S. 185–94, Taf. 82.

^{page 27 note 5} E. T. Leeds and H. de S. Shortt, An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Petersfinger, near Salisbury, Wilts., 1953, pl. VII, 177.

^{page 27 note 6} Leeds, E. T., The Archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements, 1913Google Scholar, fig. 20.

^{page 27 note 7} Sussex A.C. lvi, pl. v, 4 and 4a, and cf. Leeds and Shortt, op. cit. 1953, pl. vii, 114. Another buckle with a bronze plate of similar design comes from Reading: J. Stevens, ‘The Discovery of a Saxon Burial-place near Reading’, J.B.A.A. 1, 150–7, fig. 7. The loop is oval and of iron, and is crossed by grooves which may once have contained wires. A radiograph, however, disclosed no trace of inlay remaining. An early date is indicated by the other grave-goods: a bronze bangle, small pot, and two applied brooches with egg-and-dart border, for which see Arch. lxiii, pl. xxvi, 1.

^{page 27 note 8} E. T. Leeds, op. cit. 1936, pl. iii, c.

^{page 28 note 1} In the Gibbs Collection at the British Museum (no. 115 5–70) there is a rectangular gilt-bronze plate, 1·7 in. × 0·9 in., which may have been a plate to a similar buckle. It has a rivet-hole in each corner, perand in the centre a row of three circular cavities which could have contained glass insets. A small fifthbronze buckle from Grave 26 at High Down has a circular cavity in the centre of its rectangular plate, although in this case it is formed by perforation of the decorative plate instead of a sunk casting.

^{page 28 note 2} A bronze tube occurs in Grave 13 at Reading, and associated with it is a strap-end of the Bifrons type, i.e. consisting of two thin strips of bronze, squared at one end and rounded at the other. The decoration, too, is similar, with a rectangular panel at the squared end and a formal skein design at the other. The other grave-goods are: a pedestal pot, a rectangular buckle-loop with animal heads, a perand forated bronze coin, two bronze finger-rings and a bead, any one of them being consistent with a fifth-century date. J.B.A.A. 1, figs. 22–25, 28.

^{page 28 note 3} W. Holmqvist, op. cit., Abb. 45, 1 and 2. This is, after all, but another way of keying the surface at the same time as applying the sheet.

^{page 28 note 4} W. Holmqvist, op. cit., p. 64 and Abb. 27.

^{page 28 note 5} Sussex A.C. lvi, pl. xi, 6; cf. Nenquin, J. A. E., La Nécropole de Furfooz, 1953Google Scholar, fig. 13 and pl. vi, D. 2. B.

^{page 29 note 1} J. N. L. Myres, ‘Three Styles of Decoration on Anglo-Saxon Pottery’, Antiq. Journ. xvii, 434.

^{page 29 note 2} See note 1 on p. 35.

^{page 29 note 3} E. M. Jope, ‘An Inlaid Knife from Winchester’, Antiq. Journ. xxvi, 1, 70, pl. xia.

^{page 29 note 4} In the grave of a Christian Burgundian of the late fourth or early fifth century: Behrens, G., Das frühchristliche und Merowingische Mainz, 1950Google Scholar, Abb. 34.

^{page 29 note 5} More complicated versions of this motif occur on the Sammlung Diergardt plate (W. Holmqvist, op. cit., Abb. 25, 2) and pl. vi, e.

^{page 29 note 6} Six knives from Richborough have recently been X-rayed, but none shows any signs of inlay. They are: J. P. Bushe-Fox, Richborough IV, no. 327, p. 154, pl. LX, and five unpublished, nos. p.3, 137, 138, 2119, and 2547.

^{page 29 note 7} Antiq. Journ. xxxiv, 75–76.

^{page 29 note 8} E. T. Leeds, op. cit. 1913, fig. 8; Baldwin Brown, Arts, iv, pl. clii, ii.

^{page 29 note 9} British Museum, Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, 1923, fig. 108; Antiq. Journ. xi, 128; Leeds, op. cit. 1936, fig. 6.

^{page 29 note 10} Baldwin Brown, Arts, iii, pl. LXX, 6; Leeds, op. cit. 1936, pl. xii.

^{page 29 note 11} Antiq. Journ. xxxiv, pl. xvn, b.

^{page 29 note 12} K. M. Kenyon, Soc. of Antiquaries Research Reports XV, 1948, 255, fig. 84, no. 14.

^{page 29 note 13} Antiq. Journ. xi, 123, fig. 1.

^{page 30 note 1} Surface find, SW. area inside fort: unpublished. One more example of doubtful date, probably from Winchcombe (Glos.), is illustrated, and others are mentioned, in Antiq. Journ. xvii, 447.

^{page 30 note 2} Hillier, G., The History and Antiquities of the Isle of Wight, fig. 65.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 3} Idem , nos. 26 (a pair) and no. 23.

^{page 30 note 4} Unpublished: in New Place Museum, Stratford-on-Avon.

^{page 30 note 5} Lowther, A. W. G., ‘The Saxon Cemetery at Guildown, Guildford, Surrey’, Surrey Arch. Coll. xxxix (1931), no. 11 on p. 26Google Scholar, pl. xvi, 11.

^{page 31 note 1} Fig. 3 is reproduced from Museée de Troyes, Catalogue de bronzes, 1898, pl. xxxn, 337; cf. also pl. xviii, 181, pl. xxxvii, 409, and pl. XLI, 478. Similar buckles appear to have been in use in the early medieval period, but unfortunately they often occur in places where there was also Roman occupation. Examples with five plate rivets in identical positions to fig. 3 occur at Stockbridge Down, Proc. Hants Field Club, xiii, pl. 1, a (Grave no. 28), and Leadenhall Street, London Museum, Medieval Catalogue, pl. LXXV, 6.

^{page 31 note 2} Leeds, op. cit. 1936, pl. v, from Vermand.

^{page 31 note 3} Pitt-Rivers, Excavations in Cranborne Chase, iv, p. 89 and pl. 258, no. 10.

^{page 31 note 4} e.g. Clarke, R. R., ‘Romano-Saxon Pottery in E. Anglia’, Arch. Journal, cvi, 69–71.Google Scholar

^{page 32 note 1} A buckle from Westhofen is similar in shape, but the loop is of iron inlaid with bronze wires: L. Lindenschmidt, Alterthümer u. h. Vorzeit, Bd. ii, Heft vi, Taf. 6, 1. A bronze buckle-loop with silver wires was found at Carnuntum: Mitscha-Märheim, H., ‘Zwei neue Kleinfunde germanischer Herkunft aus Carnuntum’, Mitteilungen des Vereins der Freunde Carnuntums, v (1952), 2Google Scholar, Abb. 4.

^{page 32 note 2} A skein design occurs on the loop of a buckle from Gilton, Grave 23, B. Faussett, Inventorium Sepulchrale, pl. viii, 8.

^{page 32 note 3} On the Alfriston bronze buckle, for example.

^{page 33 note 1} The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, British Museum, fig. 18.

^{page 33 note 2} Kendrick, T. D., Anglo-Saxon Art to A.D. 900, pl. XLIV, right side, corner animals.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 3} The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, pl. 18; also on birds' feathers of the eagle and duck plaque.

^{page 33 note 4} British Museum, Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, pl. iv, 3.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 5} Lethbridge, T., ‘Jewelled Saxon Pendant from the Isle of Ely’, Proc. Camb. Ant. Soc. xlvi, pl. i.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 6} British Museum Reg. no. 79.5–24.96, Arch. xxx, pl. 1, 14 (illustrated upside down).

^{page 33 note 7} e.g. Uncleby, Leeds, E. T., op. cit. 1936, pl. XXVII, 31.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 8} The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, pl. 20, a and b; also on the clasps with the Crondale Hoard, Akerman, J. Y., Remains of Pagan Saxondom, pl. XXXIII.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 9} British Museum, Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, fig. 65.

^{page 33 note 10} Åberg, N., The Anglo-Saxons in England, fig. 240.Google Scholar

^{page 34 note 1} Holborough appears to be a seventh-century cemetery. It was excavated by the writer on behalf of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, Ministry of Works Report in preparation.

^{page 34 note 2} An iron buckle with triangular plate from Bidford-on-Avon has three silver, dome-headed rivets (Arch. lxxiii, pl. xiii, 2d). This is a case in which further decoration might be suspected, and investigation might reveal inlay.

^{page 34 note 3} R. W. Chambers, Beowulf, 1043:

Ymb þæs helmes hrōf hēāfod-beorge

wīrum bewunden wala ūtan hēōld,

þæt him fēla lāf frēcne ne meahton

scū-hread sceþþan þonne scyld-freca

ongēān gramum gangan scolde.

^{page 35 note 1} It is not known to which grave-groups these buckles belonged. Some information, however, appears in G. Hillier, The History and Antiquities of the Isle of Wight, p. 33. ‘Some [buckles] are of iron, of which two specimens are bound with silver squarewire.’ One of the most important graves is described garnetin detail, p. 29, and a drawing given of the skeleton and its possessions. A better drawing is in C. Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, vi, pl. xxvm. Mention is made of ‘an iron buckle bound with silver wire’ which is presumably one of those described above, The other finds place the grave in the first half of the sixth century: a bronze pail, two silver rims (? of horns), a silver spoon with perforated bowl and a crystal ball, iron key, knife, three square headed brooches, a keystone disc brooch, a garnetin set ansate brooch, gold threads, beads, a weaving batten, spiral silver finger-ring, and a gold ring.

^{page 35 note 2} Holmqvist, op. cit., Abb. 27.

^{page 36 note 1} Brown, Baldwin, op. cit. iii, pl. LXXV, 4.Google Scholar

^{page 36 note 2} Much of this decoration is visible and all the wires are silver but yellowish in places. In this connexion a remark of M. E. Salin is enlightening (Le Haut Moyen Age en Lorraine, 302): ‘Les placages et une partie des incrustations sont faits d'un métal blanc qui est de l'argent mêlé de cuivre: les autres incrustations sont jaunes; parmi celles-ci, les unes blanchissent dès qu'on les gratte: elles sont faites d'un alliage à base d'argent mais très riche en cuivre qui s'oxide très rapidement à l'air et simule l'or.’

^{page 36 note 3} Brass with a small zinc content.

^{page 36 note 4} Probably bone or ivory, but not ascertainable without removal.

^{page 36 note 5} The cable motif is here obtained by the formal Germanic method of a row of small circles each with two curved tangents shooting out on a diagonal axis, cf. central panel on a brooch from Bifrons, Arch. Cant. x, p. 309, Grave 29; Salin, B., op. cit., figs. 80, 288Google Scholar. The sort of cable border which prompted this Germanic interpretation is evident on late Roman silver, such as the flanged bowls at Mildenhall: British Museum, The Mildenhall Treasure, fig. 3 and pl. va.

^{page 36 note 6} The sword and buckle are part of a man's equipment, while the brooches should belong, to a woman. Perhaps this was a double grave.

^{page 37 note 1} Pollitt, W., ‘The Roman and Saxon Settlements, Southend-on-Sea’, Southend-on-Sea Ant. & Hist. Soc. Trans., vol. i, pt. ii, p. 121Google Scholar, no. 25. The inlay is here referred to as enamel.

^{page 37 note 2} Sussex A.C. lvi; photograph of the grave, pl. 11, b; the axe, pl. xix, 1; the bronzes, pl. xi, 4 and 4a.

^{page 38 note 1} Sussex A.C. lvi, 33–34: bronze plate, pl. xi, 6; buckle, pl. xv, 15 and 15a, and idem, lvii, pl. xxix, 1.

^{page 38 note 2} This buckle plate is probably referred to in Idem , lvi, 48 as ‘Fragment of wood preserved in rust, with two bronze tangs, or perhaps a spring embedded’.

^{page 38 note 3} Idem , lvi, pl. xv, 14.

^{page 38 note 4} Idem , pl. xv, 16.

^{page 38 note 5} Idem , pl. xv, 11.

^{page 38 note 6} Idem , pl. xii.

^{page 38 note 7} Arch. liv, 373.

^{page 38 note 8} Idem , 375, fig. 4.

^{page 39 note 1} Idem , 374–5, pl. XXVII, 3.

^{page 39 note 2} Labelled ‘IV, 1’.

^{page 39 note 3} Labelled ‘IV, 2’. There is a kidney-shaped iron buckle, not apparently inlaid, also labelled ‘IV, 2’: perhaps they belonged to the same belt.

^{page 40 note 1} Labelled ‘IV, 3’: a flat rectangular piece of iron, 1·8 in. × 1·6 in. (not inlaid), may have formed the plate to this loop.

^{page 40 note 2} Surrey Arch. Coll. xxxix, pl. xvi, 2.

^{page 40 note 3} Idem , pl. xvi, 3.

^{page 40 note 4} Most of the inlay on this buckle is visible: Leeds and Shortt, op. cit., 24–25, pl. vi, fig. 4: a radiograph confirmed that the obscured side of the loop and the whole of the tongue were inlaid, and that the tip of the tongue is displaced.

^{page 40 note 5} Idem , pl. viii, 180.

^{page 40 note 6} Idem , 42–4.3, fig. 5.

^{page 40 note 7} Cunnington, M. E., ‘Wiltshire in Pagan Saxon Times’, Wilts. Arch. & Nat.Hist.Mag. xlvi, 155–6.Google Scholar

^{page 41 note 1} Leeds, E. T., op. cit. 1936, pl. vii b.Google Scholar

^{page 42 note 1} Hillier, G., op. cit. no. 26.Google Scholar

^{page 42 note 2} Idem , no. 23.

^{page 42 note 3} Proc. Soc. Ant. ii, Ser. 15, fig. on p. 333.

^{page 42 note 4} Brown, Baldwin, op. cit. iii, pl. lxi, 3.Google Scholar

^{page 42 note 5} Arch., liv, 374, pl. xxvn, 8.

^{page 43 note 1} Idem , pl. xxvii, 4.

^{page 43 note 2} Idem , 374: ‘Between this brooch and the slide was a mass of rusted iron, about the size of a walnut when first found, though its size has dwindled since, and in the middle of this was a piece of white bronze shaped exactly like the common paper-fastener of today, in the form of the letter T.’ Not now identifiable.

^{page 43 note 3} Shown in the illustration, Arch., lv, pl. ix, 2, p. 21, but the decoration on the loop was apparently not noticed at that time.

^{page 43 note 4} Sussex A.C. lvi, pl. ix, 1; Leeds, op. cit. 1936, pl. iii, d.

^{page 44 note 1} Holmqvist, Abb. 26, 1 and 2.

^{page 44 note 2} Faussett, B., Inventorium Sepulchrale, 84–85, pl. ix, 4Google Scholar. The buckle-loop must be placed at the gratewrong side in this drawing. The incongruity of silver studs on an iron plate in Faussett's description suggested more decoration. When inquiring about the piece at Liverpool, I discovered Miss Tankard had already noticed some decoration, had cleaned it, and mounted it in plaster. I am extremely gratewrong ful to her for permission to publish it here.

^{page 44 note 3} Idem , 46.

^{page 44 note 4} Idem , pl. xiv, 18.

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