- Museum number
- 1908,0217.2
- Description
-
Copper alloy hanging bowl escutcheon. The hook is broken off at the junction with the escutcheon and lost. The escutcheon is of narrow bird-shape with a triangular expanding tail. The tail is strongly grooved and lower in height than the surface of the rest of the escutcheon. The design, reserved against a red enamel ground, is linear, using a line of the same weight throughout. The escutcheon was riveted to the bowl. One rivet was placed in the centre of the expanded tail, which is flat. To either side of this rivet-head are four obliquely set parallel strokes, which are engraved, perhaps because there is no closed field for enamel in the tail. The design on the body of the escutcheon is ambivalent. At the centre of the escutcheon a single pelta-theme stands up mushroom-like from an open neck. Above it the two rivet-heads serve as eyes of two downward-hanging conjoined outward directed facing bird heads with inward curling beaks. The pelta referred to can be read as the space between the beaks. Above the rivet-heads (eyes) are parallel curves in bronze, the inner of which can be seen as an eyebrow or eyelids, while the second, above, runs down to form the pelta/bird's beak motif. The lower half of the escutcheon is occupied by a device which looks like a constricted, elongated heart with open top.
- Production date
- 7thC(mid)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 41 millimetres
-
Thickness: 3 millimetres
-
Width: 18 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Bruce-Mitford 2005
This escutcheon was originally attached to hanging-bowl 1908,0217.1)
Discovery and history. Found in 1899 in a grave at West Ham, near Basingstoke, in a cutting of the Alton Light Railway. Presented to the British Museum by Dr Andrews.
Associated finds: The objects that were apparently associated with the bowl's (1908,0217.1) remains were: a knife, two spearheads, an 'iron vessel (bowl with handle)', and 'several' bone counters (Smith 1907-9,80). The British Museum accession register lists seven bone counters as being found with the bowl as well as an iron bowl 'of rough make' (1908,0217.3-14) (a ladle), diameter c.178 mm.
Discussion: The bowl has a number of interesting features. It shows engraving, bird-shaped escutcheons, a design reserved in line, an absence of any trumpet-pattern or trumpet-spiral element, and riveting. The pendant bird's heads, with rivet-head eyes and curved beaks, is essentially a Germanic theme; the pelta element could be sub-Roman, or even a shape incidentally formed, i.e. a residual shape, within the opposed bird's beaks. In this case the design would have no connection with the Celtic style of the pelta and trumpet-pattern tradition.
The Capheaton bowl (Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle (incorporating the Collections of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, Blackgate Museum): 1813.25) and others provide parallels for the engraved designs.
Bibliography: Smith, R.A., 1907-9, Bronze hanging bowls and enamelled mounts, ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London’ 2nd ser., XXII, 79, fig. 22; Kendrick, D.T., 1932, British hanging-bowls, ‘Antiquity’ 6, 166; Henry, F. 1936. Hanging-bowls, ‘Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland’ LXVI, 229, fig. 7h; Leeds, E.T., 1936, ‘Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology, being the Rhind Lectures Delivered in Edinburgh 1935’, Oxford, 9 and fn.; Kilbride-Jones, H.E., 1936-7, A bronze hanging bowl from Castle Tioram, Moidart: and a suggested absolute chronology for British hanging-bowls, ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’ 71, 215; Shetelig, H., 1940, An introduction to the Viking history of Western Europe, in H. Shetelig (ed.), ‘Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland’, vol. I, Oslo, ll; Swanton, M.J., 1973, ‘The Spearheads of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements’, London, 161, figs. 63d-h; Brenan, J., 1991, ‘Hanging Bowls and their Contexts: An Archaeological Survey of their Socio-Economic Significance from the Fifth to Seventh centuries AD’, BAR British Series 220, Oxford, cat. 6, 182-3.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1908
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1908,0217.2