6th-8th century AD. An Anglo-Saxon hanging bowl with Romano-British design elements; unusually complete (approximately 70-80% intact) sheet-bronze hemispherical hanging bowl of Bruce-Mitford's type ‘C’ with the rim complete and the bowl's sidewall fragmentary with basal ring and basal mount; the three zoomorphic escutcheons each with an attachment ring; together with fragments of a second circular rim and a fragment of bone; the group comprises:the bowl frame: a sheet-bronze rim with circumferential C-section neck, flat everted rim and partial remains of bowl sidewall with curved profile; the rim frame is apparently complete, albeit with a single horizontal break; also present is one large fragment of upper bowl wall, the top edge relatively flat and coterminous with a section of the rim, the lower edge with a ragged profile; accompanied by a group of four smaller bowl wall fragments;the base: an approximately circular base with slightly dished profile; the interior face with a central circular scar and remains of tinning; exterior with step between base and lower wall; central piercing and circular scar from mount; remains of tinning;the two-part basal mount: a basal collar with concave outer wall, the convex and carinated inner wall decorated with a dense series of incised geometric patterns consisting of alternating panels of cross hatching, vertical lines and chevrons; a discoid mount with central knop to the reverse which fits into the central piercing on the bowl's base; decorative element comprising a palmette-armed cross within roundel, four enamelled circles at the terminals of two of the arms; a second palmette between each arm; central enamelled rectangle with convex sides; bisecting and dashed lines around;three suspension rings: three sub-oval-section rings with circumferential median groove; one ring with three groups of two dashed grooves to both faces; faint remains of the same pattern on a second ring;the escutcheons: three almost identical zoomorphic ‘hook’ escutcheons: (1) complete, with openwork discoid body and animal-head hook; body with La Tène style designs, penannular border housing two teardrop-shaped motifs at the shoulders with hatching, concentric tear-drops within, openwork pelta-sided triangles and semi-circular openwork voids between, two roundels below with beaded borders and central triskele with remains of enamelling, again with openwork pelta-sided triangles above and below; domed collar supporting an animal-head hook with erect ears, pellet eyes and tapering snout, remains of enamelled lozenge on the animal’s neck; remains of tinning; (2) also complete with almost identical decorative motifs (variations in the details of enamelling and tinning); (3) (repaired) with very small fragments absent, minor variations in the design motifs, e.g. hatching rather than pellets to the bottom right roundel and style of the triskele arms, and variations in enamelling and tinning; elements of the decorative motifs on these escutcheons recall c.4th-5th century BC La Tène style;the second frame: six shallow u-section fragments of varying lengths and curving profile, once part of a second circular frame; remains of soldering to one face;the bone fragment: tapering V-section fragment found in association with the bronze ensemble. 560 grams total, 51-68mm without rings; plus the remains of the bowl (2 - 2 3/4"). Cf. Farley, J. & Hunter, F., Celts Art and Identity, London, 2015, item 162, for similar bowl profile; see Pollington, S., Kerr, L. & Hammond, B. Wayland's Work: Anglo-Saxon Art, Myth & Material Culture from the 4th to 7th century, Ely, 2010, pp.279-80, for discussion relevant to dating and use; see archaeological reconstructions of the royal burial at Prittlewell, Southend-On-Sea, England, for an artist’s reconstruction of a burial chamber with a hanging bowl on the wall; see Bruce-Mitford, R.L.S., A Corpus of late Celtic hanging-bowls: with an account of the bowls found in Scandinavia, OUP, 2005; see Geake, H., When were Hanging Bowls Deposited in Anglo-Saxon Graves? in Medieval Archaeology vol. 43, pp.1-18; see The British Museum collection, accession no.939,1010.110, for a very similar basal collar, dated late 6th-early 7th century AD, excavated at Sutton Hoo burial site; ibid for the same bowl profile with the integral folded rim; see museum number 1967,1004.1, for a 7th-8th century AD bowl of the same profile, found Lullingstone, Kent; see The Portable Antiquities Scheme Database, record id. YORYM-05D224, for similar rings dated c.400-c.700 AD; see The Portable Antiquities Scheme, record id. SUSS-F9E7AA, for a similar escutcheon dated 500-700 AD; see The British Museum., Celts, London, 1996, pp.10-11, for an openwork harness disc with very similar 'triskele' motifs; see Laing, J., and Laing, L., Art of the Celts, Thames and Hudson, 1992, item 51, for a similar animal head, particularly the ear, dated early 4th century BC; see Ryan, M. ed., Ireland and Insular Art, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2002, p.35, item b, for the Chesterton-on-Fosseway escutcheon with a similar cross with palmette terminals (basal mount); other broadly comparable examples of hanging bowls include: The Wilton Bowl (Salisbury Museum); The Winchester hanging bowl, held by the Hampshire Cultural Trust, object number HMCMS:A2007.31.1; The Bagington cemetery hanging bowl, which housed a cremation burial, held by Herbert Art Gallery and Museum; see The Portable Antiquities Scheme, record id. YORYM-6FF21D, for a comparable hanging bowl ensemble. Found while searching with a metal detector by Daniel Watts and Jonathan Dent near Scotch Corner, North Yorkshire, UK; accompanied by a copy of the Portable Antiquities Scheme report number DUR-24F5CC, and a specialist report by Stephen Pollington; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10846-177998. Recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme under report number DUR-24F5CC. Mounts: very fine condition, one repaired; plus remains of the bowl. Rare.
