English: An incomplete cast copper-alloy enamelled hanging bowl mount dating from the Early Medieval period. Mass: 16.8g; Length: 66.6mm; width: 40mm; thickness: 2.9mm. The mount consists of approximately half of an openwork disc with a complete tail appendage. The front is slightly convex, and the reverse is slightly concave.

The front of the mount has reserved fields for triquetra ornament, double-contoured on the disc and single line in the tail. There are traces of a white metal coating on the front metal surfaces. The reserved fields are inlaid with enamel, although this is slightly incomplete. The enamel is yellow in the ribbon and three points of the tail ornament (though not the centre), against a red background. The red has decayed to a uniform pale whitish-green but in section at the breaks and on the lower part of the disc the original colour can be clearly seen. The reverse of the mount is rough, with one or two places where solder may remain. The mount is broken at the top, middle and above the tail appendage, exposing a brown uneven surface. There is also a small V shaped nick in the curved external edge of the disc above one side of the tail appendage.

‘When complete this would have had a crescentic upper hole, mirroring the tail, and an oval lower opening, while the whole piece was a brilliant red decorated with yellow motifs set against a silvery metal, almost certainly tin. The top is damaged and functional hanging bowl mounts have substantial hooks at that point to hold a ring for a suspension line. They were used in sets of three (more rarely four) so that the bowl hung level from a central point.  Although the curvature of this mount shows that it was fitted to a bowl, it is not obvious how it could work as part of the suspension system without a hook, while the alternative of a hook on a frame is unlikely given the complex outline of the tail. This suggests that there was originally a narrow hook at the top, for which there is at least one parallel. While there are some purely decorative appliqué mounts on hanging-bowls they do not imitate the form of hooked plates in this way. The new find looks like a functional plate and therefore one of a spectacularly coloured set.’  

‘Dating and sourcing these bowls are still very difficult and contentious subjects, however, the size of the piece, its open-work, the use of relatively bold and crude ribbon patterns all suggest to me that this is late in the British series, from the period 650-750. Other examples of the ribbon style from hanging bowls are known from Swynnerton Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and eastern Wales.’ I am grateful to Susan Youngs for these comments.