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Two plates from a late Saxon casket

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

David M. Wilson
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Extract

Two unique pieces of Late Anglo-Saxon silverwork of outstanding interest have recently been purchased by the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum. The pieces are plates from a house-shaped casket, or shrine, of a well-known British type. They formed part of the collection of a Sussex doctor and were purchased from him by the dealer who sold them to the Museum: they are unfortunately unprovenanced, but from external evidence it seems likely that they formed part of a Victorian collection. One of the pieces is rectangular and measures 12.6×5.2 cm., the other is rhomboid and measures along its longest side 12.1 cm., they differ also in their ornamentation which is carried out in a shallow carving, or graving, technique. (pl. v a).

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 36 , Issue 1-2 , April 1956, pp. 31 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1956

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References

page 31 Note 1 Swarzenski, Cf. G., ‘An Early Anglo-Irish Portable Shrine’, Bull. Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, 1954, pp. 50 ff.Google Scholar

page 31 Note 2 When purchased the plates were mounted on a piece of nineteenth-century velvet in a Morland frame.

page 31 Note 3 Inventory, B. M. No. 1954, 12–1, 1 and 2: a short preliminary publication of these pieces has already appeared in the B.M. Quarterly, 1955, p. 47. I am grateful to my colleagues Messrs. R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford and P. Lasko for help and advice during the writing of this paper.Google Scholar

page 31 Note 4 e.g. Mahr, A., Christian Art in Ancient Ireland, i, 1932, pl. 18, 1 and 7.Google Scholar

page 31 Note 5 Vide Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., ‘Late Saxon Disc-Brooches’, Dark Age Britain; Studies presented to E. T. Leeds, London, 1956, pp. 171 ff.Google Scholar

page 33 Note 1 P.S.A. Land, xxi, 68, fig. 2.

page 33 Note 2 e.g. on the Franks Casket (B.M. Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, pl. VIII) and the Sutton, Isle of Ely, Brooch (vide B.M. Quarterly, 1952, p. 15) but see Cinthio, E., ‘Anglo-Saxon and Irish style Influences in Skåne,’ Meddelanden från Lunds Universitets Historiska Museum, 1947, passim.Google Scholar

page 33 Note 3 B.M. Anglo-Saxon Guide, pl. ix.

page 33 Note 4 Brønsted, J., Early English Ornament, Copenhagen, 1924, fig. 114.Google Scholar

page 33 Note 5 I am grateful for this dating to Mr. R. H. M. Dolley, F.S.A., it is part of his unpublished work on the Swedish coin hoards.

page 33 Note 6 e.g. Sutton, , Stockholm, , Beeston, Tor, etc., vide Bruce-Mitford (1956), pp. 171 ff.Google Scholar

page 33 Note 7 Swarzenski, p. 51, gives a complete list.

page 34 Note 1 P.S.A. Scot, xiv, 286.

page 34 Note 2 Bruce-Milford, See (1956).Google Scholar

page 34 Note 3 ‘The Norse Style of Ornamentation in the Viking Settlements’. Acta Archaeologica, xix, 1948, 74.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 4 B.M. Quarterly, xii, 1937/8, pl. XXIII, 4.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 5 Leeds, E. T., Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 1936, pl. XXXIII.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 6 Brønsted, J., Early English Ornament, London/Copenhagen, 1924, fig. 114.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 7 Nerman, B., Det Forntida Stockholm, Stockholm, 1922, fig. 15.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 8 Haseloff, G.Der Tassilokelch, München, 1951, pl. 1.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 9 Brønsted, J. (1924), fig. 128.Google Scholar

page 34 Note 10 B.M., Anglo-Saxon Guide, fig. 130: The old higher dating quoted, for instance, in the Guide is due to a misreading of a coin of Aethelred I by Hawkins in 1851 I am grateful to my colleague Mr. R. H. M. Dolley, F.S.A., for this revised dating.Google Scholar

page 35 Note 1 Kendrick, T. D., Anglo-Saxon Art, London, 1938, pl. LXXVIII, 1.Google Scholar

page 35 Note 2 Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., ‘A Late Saxon Disk Brooch and Sword Pommel’, B.M. Quarterly, XV, 1952, pl. XXXIIIa.Google Scholar

page 35 Note 3 A note on this object is in preparation.

page 35 Note 4 Lindqvist, S. ‘Yngre Vikingastilar’, Nordisk Kultur, xxvii, Kunst, ed. Shetelig, H., 1931, fig. 5.Google Scholar

page 35 Note 5 Ibid., fig. 20.

page 36 Note 1 Kendrick, T. D., Late Saxon and Viking Art, London, 1949, p. 91.Google Scholar

page 36 Note 2 Brønsted, J., Danmarks Oldtid, iii, København, 1940, fig. 307b.Google Scholar

page 36 Note 3 Collingwood, W. G., Northumbrian Crosses of the Pre-Norman Age, London, 1927, fig. 187.Google Scholar

page 37 Note 1 Shetelig, H., Osebergfundet, Oslo, 1920, iii, fig. 332.Google Scholar

page 37 Note 2 Kendrick, T. D., Anglo-Saxon Art, London, 1938, pl. LXXVIII, 2.Google Scholar

page 37 Note 3 Kendrick, T. D., ‘Flambard's Crozier’, Antiq Journ. xviii (1938).Google Scholar

page 38 Note 1 Raftery, J., Christian Art in Ancient Ireland, ii, Dublin 1941, pp. 147 f.Google Scholar

page 39 Note 1 Armstrong, E. C. R., ‘Lord Emly's Shrine, two ridge poles of shrines and two Bronze Caskets.’ Antiq. Journ. ii, fig. 2.Google Scholar

page 39 Note 2 For discussion of these see Conway, M.P.S.A. Lond., 1918, pp. 218 f.Google Scholar

page 39 Note 3 The argument in favour of the Irish caskets being reliquaries is noted in Raftery (1941), p. 48. But caution is I think necessary in our terminology concerning the object to which these two plates were attached on account of our lack of knowledge of the English material.