XI.—On a Silver Bowl and Cover of the Ninth or Tenth Century

Abstract

The silver vessel here illustrated (Plate XLVII. bwas acquired many years ago by Sir A. W. Franks, and at his death passed by bequest to the British Museum. It is a deep bowl, with a cover made to be lifted by a projecting handle in the form of a quatrefoil upon a vertical stem, the height, without the cover, being 3½ inches. The whole of the exterior both of bowl and cover is richly decorated with designs in relief. Four equidistant panels each containing a large quatrefoil are enclosed by vine stems, with occasional bunches of grapes at which birds are pecking; in the interspaces between the panels the stems unite to form a lozenge containing a quatrefoil of smaller dimensions. Wherever two stems meet they are bound by collar-like bands, which are doubtless conventionalized representations of closely-twining tendrils. The design thus forms a continuous pattern well adapted to the sides of a vessel; it is repeated on a smaller scale upon the cover. The grapes, the leaves, and the bodies of the birds are all inlaid with niello. The ground throughout is gilded, as is the interior of the bowl. The bottom has been rasped or filed on the exterior, though the interior remains in its original condition. It has heen suggested that the bowl may once have had a foot.