Breast ornament, embossed, chased and engraved gold, possibly made in Northern Germany, ca. 1150-1200

Breast ornament, gold, decorated with lions, griffins and male heads. The base of the ornament is shaped into sixteen lobes outlined with corded wire. Four of the lobes, in the positions North, South, East and West, are set with human heads. Another four (at the lesser points of the compass) are set with bosses. In between each boss and human head is a lobe that would have held a gem (now missing).

Above each of the gem settings is a design of a passant lion. In between the lions are small niches outlined with corded wire. Two of the niches contain animal masks, perhaps of a lion, which protrude in the style of a gargoyle. The other six niches contain hollow circular stems. These may have once contained similar animal masks, or perhaps more gems.

The upper half of the ornament displays four more beasts in a similar fashion to the lions below. There are two griffins of different design, a dog and a leopard. Niches, which contain animal masks similar to those below, separate these beasts.

The boss is decorated with an openwork arcade of corded wire. A roundel at the top of the ornament shows a smith sitting in front of an anvil holding a hammer and forging a bar of metal which curves outwards at the end.

On the back of the ornament, each lobe carries a spiraled design. There are also two hoops of different shapes for hanging the ornament.

Acquired from the John Webb Collection (received 1867 on loan, purchased 1872). Described on acquisition as the 'cover of a goblet'.

Historical significance: This object is unique of its kind. The smith may be Wayland the Smith; the motif has no known parallel in 12th or 13th century goldsmith's work.

Evans considers this piece as an example of the changing styles in Germany and Scandanavia in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The brooch 'keeps the traditional round form, bossed like a shield, but elaborates it into a composition of real beauty. The lobes and bosses, though they keep something of the traditional arrangement of the earlier brooches with knobs of bone and garnet, are all treated in pure goldwork.'

This ornament was considered to be a morse, but its decoration, including the roundel at the top (which is certainly original), is wholly secular and it is clearly a breast ornament. There are no traces of wear or solder such as would have been created by a hinged pin and it must therefore either have been worn suspended from a lace or sewn into position. The prominence of the lion suggests that it was a man's ornament.

possibly made in Northern Germany

This large and ostentatious breast ornament was probably sewn directly onto clothing. Decorated as it is with male heads, lions and griffins, it is likely to have been owned by a man of considerable status.The empty sockets must once have held gemstones. Both lions and griffins were linked with valour and prowess, and their images often decorated medieval princely objects.

392-1872