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The Mold Cape

• Object type

  • cape

• Museum number

  1836,0902.1

• Title (object)

  • The Mold Cape

• Description

  Gold cape. It was made from single sheet of beaten gold, with raised decoration of ridges separating rows of dots, rectangles and lozenges.
  A small sample from a fragment of the cape taken for scientific analysis. It is a small triangular sheet fragment decorated with one embossed dot and one rib defined by a row of pointillé.

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• Culture/period

  • Early Bronze Age

• Date

  • 1900BC-1600BC (circa)

• Findspot

  • Found/Acquired: Mold, The Mold Gold Cape was found by workmen quarrying for stone in a burial mound in 1833 in a field named Bryn yr Ellyllon (the Fairies' or Goblins' Hill). At the centre of the mound was a stone-lined grave with the crushed gold cape around the fragmentary remains of a skeleton. Strips of bronze and many amber beads were recovered, but only one of the beads reached the British Museum.
  • (Europe,United Kingdom,Wales,Flintshire,Mold)

• Materials

  • gold

• Technique

  • pointillé
  • embossed
  • beaten

• Dimensions

  • Weight: 560 grammes
  • Length: 465 millimetres
  • Width: 280 millimetres
  • Height: 235 millimetres
  • Length: 240 millimetres (neck opening)
  • Width: 220 millimetres (neck opening)
  • Length: 5.13 millimetres (sample)
  • Width: 5.67 millimetres (sample)
  • Thickness: 0.11 millimetres (sample)
  • Weight: 0.052 milligrams (sample)

• Curator's comments

  The cape would have been unsuitable for everyday wear because it would have severely restricted upper arm movement. Instead it would have served ceremonial roles, and may have denoted religious authority.
  
  The cape is one of the finest examples of prehistoric sheet-gold working and is quite unique in form and design. It was laboriously beaten out of a single ingot of gold, then embellished with intense decoration of ribs and bosses to mimic multiple strings of beads amid folds of cloth. Perforations along the upper and lower edges indicate that it was once attached to a lining, perhaps of leather, which has decayed. The bronze strips may have served to strengthen the adornment further.

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• Bibliography

  • Powell 1953
  • Needham 2000
  • Needham 2012
  • Murgia et al 2011 1.10.1
  • MacGregor 2010 19

• Location

  G51/dc8

• Exhibition history

  Exhibited:

  2013 7 Aug-14 Sep, Wrexham, Wrexham Museum, Spotlight: The Mold Gold Cape PROMISED
  2013 2 Jul-4 Aug, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, Spotlight: The Mold Gold Cape PROMISED
  2005 26 Sep-17 Dec, Wrexham, County Borough Museum, Recreations

• Science

  See investigations 

  •  February 2010 – Analysis of fragments of embossed gold sheet associated with the Early Bronze Age gold cape from Mold, Clwyd (How Object) 
  •  January 1956 – Gold Mold corselet or peytel and tray of fragments 

  About these records 

• Acquisition name

  • Donated by: Rev George Rushleigh

• Acquisition date

  1836

• Acquisition notes

  Parts of the Mold gold cape and associated artefacts from the site came to the British Museum at intervals between 1836 and 1972 though the fragments acquired after 1836 were all small. Four gold sheet fragments from the cape were presented to the Grosvenor Museum, Chester by Mr George Lowe in 1953. They were loaned to the British Museum 1966-1987. One fragment belongs to the cape thought the other three appear to relate to fragments 1836.0902.2-3 which may be a distinct object.

• Department

  Prehistory and Europe

• Registration number

  1836,0902.1