shoulder-clasp
- Museum number
- 1939,1010.5
- Description
-
One half of a gold shoulder-clasp inlaid with garnet cloisonné and glass. A loop and chain is attached to the top of the clasp, which is fixed to a plain gold pin with an animal-head terminal in filigree. The pin passes through a hinge that connects this clasp with shoulder-clasp 1939,1010.5.a.
The clasp is curved in section and consists of a rectangular plate with rounded end. The hinge runs along the straight end. The clasp has loops for attaching it to a garment underneath.
The rectangular plate contains a central panel of fifteen cloisonné cells filled alternately with millefiori glass and garnets. These are interspersed with slightly larger plain garnet cells. The central panel is bordered on each side with designs of interlacing beasts, their bodies formed of inlaid garnets and their eyes of blue glass.
The rounded end contains a design of two interlinked boars, executed in garnet cloisonné. Their heads are down, and their curved backs from the rounded end of the clasp. Their hip-joints are inlaid with millefiori glass. The spaces between the boars’ legs are filled with a zoomorphic design, and the central field a non-zoomorphic motif, all in gold filigree. The cells behind the boars’ back legs are lidded with gold foil.
The garnet cells are underlaid with stamped gold foil.
- Production date
- late 6thC-early 7thC (c. AD 560/70-610)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 5.10 centimetres (chain)
-
Length: 12.70 centimetres (incl 5a)
-
Length: 5.70 centimetres (pin)
-
Weight: 106.13 grammes (excluding 5a)
-
Thickness: 0.50 centimetres
-
Width: 5.40 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Published:
King, M., 2014. Besette swinlicum: Sources for the Iconography of the Sutton Hoo Shoulder-clasps. In: Owen-Crocker, G. R. and Schneider, B. W. (eds.), The Anglo_Saxons: The World Through Their Eyes. Oxford: Archaeopress. BAR British Series 595, pp. 89–102
Adams, N., 2010. Rethinking the Sutton Hoo Shoulder Clasps and Armour. In: Entwistle, C. and Adams, N. (eds.), Intelligible Beauty: Recent Research on Byzantine Jewellery. London: British Museum Press, pp. 83–112
- Location
- On display (G41/dc1/sG)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2024-2025, 26 Sep – 23 Feb, British Museum, Gallery 30, Silk Roads
2008 15 Mar-2 Nov, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre, East Anglia: The Life and Death of a Kingdom
1980 10 Mar-30 Sep, Sweden, Stockholm, Statens Historika Museum, The Vikings are Here
- Acquisition date
- 1939
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1939,1010.5
