Sir John Evans's Collections of Artefacts
Anglo-Saxon Sword Pommel
Country of Origin: Britain
Description: Late Anglo-Saxon sword pommel with an elegant design of interlacing snakes and grapes on a leafless vine in gold filigree, dating from the eighth or ninth centuries AD.
Dimensions: 2.3cm length x 4.4cm width
Object Period: Anglo-Saxon
Provenance: Windsor, Berkshire
Museum Accession No.: AN1909.518
Aquisition History: Presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Sir Arthur Evans in 1909.
Other Information: Interlaced biting creatures with snakes' bodies are known from southern English sculpture of the period, and this pommel forms tangible evidence that references in Saxon literature to 'gold-hilted swords' were not an exaggeration of the splendours of Anglo-Saxon craftmanship.
Further References / Links:
L. Webster and J. Backhouse, The Making of England. Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture, AD600-900, (London, 1991) no. 180.
