File:Early Anglo-Saxon gusset plate (FindID 19428-459274).jpg

English: Gilded copper-alloy gusset plate, missing one lower corner but recognisably conforming to the usual pattern. Basically triangular, the two lower corners have birds' heads with blob eyes and long curly beaks, with a sewing hole slightly cutting the underside of the beaks. One corner has broken away across the sewing hole. The birds' necks curve up and inwards as raised undecorated bands, to meet at a central disc. Below this disc, at the base of the plate, the backs of the birds' heads are joined by a strut forming a circular hole (which was probably not used for sewing, as the slit in the cuff would meet the plate here). Above the birds' heads on either side is a decorative border, formed from a ridge with a groove either side and transverse grooves across. This border is interrupted by relief-decorated projections which may once have been another pair of birds' heads. These ?birds have no necks, but a single raised undecorated band emerges from the central disc and runs upwards between the ribbed borders to a simple animal/human mask which fills the apex of the plate. This has a broad raised undecorated forehead, blob eyes and a raised flaring nose. There must once have been a sewing hole at the apex, but there is now no trace of it. There is a slight curve from side to side, to allow the plate to fit nicely around the wrist; the apex has a subsequent bend which has not caused any stress to the metal. Surviving width 24 mm, length as bent 41 mm. Animal heads at the lower corners and apex, and a central disc, are standard features of gusset plates. The hole at the centre of the base is found on some Norwegian and East Anglian examples. A good example of a rare early Anglo-Saxon find.