File:Early medieval hanging bowl escutcheon (FindID 1001198).jpg

English: A cast copper alloy escutcheon from a hanging bowl of early medieval date, c. AD 500-700.

The escutcheon is primarily zoomorphic in shape, formed in the shape of a large animal, probably a fantastical beast possibly based on a wolf or other large carnivore. The mouth is presented as gaping open with a large upper snout which is reminiscent of that of a lion, with marks of possible nostrils and impressions of whiskers. The face is markedly lengthened along the muzzle, which is suggestive of a wolf or possibly a fantastical dragon style creature. The impressed eyes are exaggeratedly large, and are placed centrally in the upper forehead, forward facing in the manner of a carnivore. On the crown are the stubs of two ears which are again shaped like those of a wolf, folded and triangular in shape, appearing slightly pricked, as though at attention. The lower jaw of the creature forms the upper part of a circular attachment loop (which is 8.3mm in diameter), with a truncated cylindrical stud just below it at the point of attachment to the vessel. From behind the ears, the beast curves into a crescent shape, and has a thick neck with a suggestion of a mane or dorsal ridge in fur or scales suggested by four ridged grooves. This then joins a lunulate base to the escutcheon, which is slightly convex in shape. There is a further depression on the inner surface beneath the stud, above the point at which the lunulate base meets the beast's neck.

The object is decorated with an elaborate series of enamel inlays. These are: a lunulate shape just behind the beast's ears, deliberately shaped to curve around its mane, filled with red enamel; two sweeping lunulates placed on either side of the neck, now with much of the enamel missing but retaining tiny fragments of red enamel; and three circular decorations on the lunulate base, the upper two of which suggest they were filled with blue enamel, while the lower one preserves the majority of its original red enamel inlay.

Rebecca Ellis has kindly commented that this object is more likely to be an escutcheon from an early medieval hanging bowl than a zoomorphic vessel mount of Iron Age date, in spite of its enamel decoration. This remark was prompted by the publication on the database of  LVPL-65CF33, which is very similar in form. That record states that:

"Further examples of hanging bowl escutcheons which can be found on the PAS database include YORYM-975799, SUSS-F9E7AA and LVPL-BAC386.

SWYOR-3D5807 notes that: This piece was originally one of a set of hooked-mounts, normally three, attached by their plates around the body of a circular copper-alloy bowl and fixed below the rim so that each hook projected above it. Each hook held a metal ring with a cord or strap attached used to hang the bowl from a central point. Hanging-bowls are specialised luxury vessels with Roman-period origins, and were made in the early medieval period only in Britain and later Ireland. They were much prized in the new Anglo-Saxon cultures of eastern Britain and included in furnished burials, contexts that date them to the mid- sixth and to mid-seventh century, although later types were made and found more widely distributed in the Viking period.

A published example can be found in West 1998: 315 fig.156."

Measurements: 53.1mm height, 37.9mm width (at lunulate base), 14.2mm width (at beast's ears), 4mm thickness (of lunulate base), 9.8mm thickness (of beast's snout), weight 47.2g.