Three Pieces of ninth-century Anglo-Saxon ornamental Metalwork in the Royal Museum, Canterbury

THREE PIECES OF NINTH-CENTURY ANGLOSAXON ORNAMENTAL METALWORK IN THE ROYAL MUSEUM, CANTERBURY JAMES GRAHAM-CAMPBELL The purpose of this note is to outline the significance of three pieces of ninth-century Anglo-Saxon ornamental metalwork from Kent, now in the Royal Museum, Canterbury.' These objects (Fig. 1) consist of a silver hooked tag (reg. no. 2430) and a copper-alloy strap-end (reg. no. 2182), both of which derive from the John Brent collection of east Kentish antiquities, and a splendid silver strap-end found on the beach in 1980 by Mr E. Woodward, at St. Mildred's Bay, Westgate-on-Sea, Thanet. Detailed descriptions and full discussions of these objects and their ornament were published in Medieval Archaeology in 1982, where full references to comparative material will also be found. 2 John Brent, F.S.A., was a nineteenth-century antiquarian in east Kent who bequeathed part of his collection to Canterbury Museum on the death of his brother Cecil Brent, F.S.A., who inherited it for his lifetime. Material that had belonged to John Brent also reached the museum in two other ways. Some was simply left there by him during his honorary curatorship, by donation or oversight, whilst further objects were purchased by Canterbury from the Brents' combined collections when Cecil's was auctioned. Mr K. Reedie, to whom I owe my information on the Brents, informs me that the early accession records of the museum did not cope adequately with these distinctions. It is consequently impossible to be any more precise ' These objects are published here at the invitation and with the assistance of Mr K. Reedie, Curator of the Royal Museum, Canterbury, to whom I am most grateful; the drawings are by Eva Wilson. 2 J. Graham-Campbell, 'Some new and neglected Finds of 9th-century Anglo-Saxon ornamental Metalwork', Med. Arch., xxvi (1982), 146-51. 21 J. GRAHAM-CAMPBELL Fig. 1. Ninth-century Anglo-Saxon ornamental Metalwork from Kent: 1, Silver Strap-end from St. Mildred's Bay, Thanet; 2, Copper-alloy Strap-end from Stowting or Faversham; 3, Silver hooked Tag from east Kent. (Scale: t) about the hooked tag than to say that it once belonged to John Brent's collection of east Kentish antiquities. The copper-alloy strap-end, on the other hand, is known to be one of those objects that came to the museum from the John Brent collection via Cecil, for it is illustrated in the 1884 manuscript catalogue, Catalogue of Saxon Antiquities in the Possession of Cecil Brent, F.S.A. (pl. 17, 14), among objects from the cemeteries at Stowting and Faversham.3 The two Anglo-Saxon strap-ends (Fig. 1, nos. 1 and 2) belong to a stereotyped ninth-century group characterized by their elongated form, with a narrow opening at the split-end pierced for a pair of rivets, with incised ornament on the obverse and a plain reverse, and with a terminal in the form of a stylized animal's head seen from above. Such small strap-ends must have been largely ornamental in 3 This Catalogue is preserved in the Dept. of Medieval and Later Antiquities of the British Museum. 22 NINTH-CENTURY ORNAMENTAL METALWORK purpose, although they will have served to protect the ends of woven belts or ribbons from fraying whilst providing the weight to make them hang attractively. The animal-head terminal of the St. Mildred's Bay strap-end is clearly recognisable once the top of the head has been identified by its pair of rounded oval ears containing lunate incisions; the eyes are represented by dots in pointed oval fields, set well down on either side of the ornamented snout. The animal's head on the Stowting/ Faversham example is, however, so debased that only the characteristic ears are recognisable in this instance. Both the strap-ends ( and the hooked tag) are decorated in the so-called 'Trewhiddle style' of late Anglo-Saxon art, named for the ornament on a group of silver objects that formed part of a coin-hoard deposited c. 872-5 at Trewhiddle in Cornwall.' The St. Mildred's Bay strap-end (Fig. 1, no. 1) presents a small-scale version of the Trewhiddle style at its finest. The surface of the object is characteristically divided up into several small fields, each containing a separate motif, between beaded borders. The upper left-hand field contains a lively animal seen in profile, with a square snout and a bump over the eye, and with its ear on a string - all features that are characteristic of animals depicted according to the conventions of this ninth-century style. The field alongside this animal contains a simple interlace pattern, whilst the two fields below both contain an animal whose body deteriorates into interlace; variety has been introduced into this part of the design by the animals being of slightly different size and inverted in relation to each other. It is probable that this strap-end would originally have had its decoration inlaid with niello, a silver sulphide, in order that its blackness should emphasize the ornament and contrast with the silver, for such is the standard practice on Trewhiddle-style silverwork. It was, however, scrubbed by its finder and no traces of niello are now apparent to the naked eye. The Stowting/Faversham strap-end (Fig. 1, no. 2) is likewise divided into four fields of which the lower pair both contain a backward-looking animal seen in profile, with the familiar squaredoff snout and bump over the eye. The bodies of these animals have nicked contours, which is another detail typical of much Trewhiddlestyle ornament (as may also been seen on the hooked tag in Fig. 1, no. 3). The upper pair of fields both contain a single animal whose ' D.M. Wilson and C.E. Blunt, 'The Trewhiddle Hoard', Archaeologia, xcviii (1961), 75-122; D.M. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon ornamental Metalwork, 700-1100, in the British Museum (1964), nos. 90-103. 23 J. GRAHAM-CAMPBELL body degenerates into interlace, with a raised front leg; that on the left-hand animal is inserted into an indentation in its body - an unusual feature previously discussed in this journal in relation to the animal ornament on an eighth-century Anglo-Saxon object from Canterbury/ Strap-ends such as these represent the commonest form of surviving late Anglo-Saxon ornamental metalwork, being particularly abundant from the ninth century, although there is apparently only one other on record from Kynt. This was found at Postling, near Stowting, in 1960 and is also preserved in the Royal Museum, Canterbury.• The silver hooked tag, originally inlaid with niello, from east Kent (Fig. 1, no. 3), has been completely overlooked in previous discussions of late Anglo-Saxon ornamental metalwork despite the quality of its mainstream Trewhiddle-style ornament, for this has only recently been revealed by cleaning. Its surface is divided into three fields by beaded borders. The small triangular field at the top contains a single animal of the same general type as those represented on the strap-ends, with nicked contours, whilst the two large fields contain foliate and semi-foliate motifs (also with nicked contours), which may readily be paralleled on other Trewhiddle-style objects, such as the larger of the two Beeston Tor, Derbyshire, disc brooches (deposited c. 875),' and the Abingdon, Oxon., sword." This tag is now in poor condition, but was once very fine, and is missing one of the pair of perforated lugs by which it would have been sewn to some light fabric for use in the manner of a modern 'hook and eye'. Such hooked tags came into use in the seventh century and were employed throughout the rest of the Anglo-Saxon period, although the finest surviving examples are those from the ninth century with their Trewhiddle-style ornament. This example is the first on record from Kent, but it has recently been joined by a second of exceptional quality, also in silver and niello, ornamented in the Trewhiddle style, which was excavated in 1980 by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. 9 s M. Buday and J. Graham-Campbell, 'An eighth-century Anglo-Saxon Ornament from Canterbury and related Works', Arch. Cant., xcvii (1981), 7-25. 6 V.I. Evison, 'A ninth-century Strap-end from Pestling', Arch. Cant., lxxxii (1967), 282-3. 1 Wilson, op. cit., no. 3. • D.A. Hinton, Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon ornamental Metalwork, 700-1100, in the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum (1974), no. I. • Graham-Campbell, op. cit., fig. 2, 2 and pl. IV, b. 24