School/style: Urnes style
Cultures/periods: Viking; Late Anglo-Saxon
Production date: 11thC
Found/Acquired: Europe: British Isles: England: Lincolnshire: Manthorpe
Materials: copper alloy
The cast openwork copper alloy mount is slightly convex, in the form of an octagonal snake biting its own body. The head, when viewed from above, has a pointed snout and two protruding round eyes. The body, decorated with three rows of embossed dots, tapers toward the tail, which ends with a tightly twisted end above the head. Its single leg wraps three times around its body and ends in a second scroll that runs diagonally over the tail. The intertwined tendrils of the leg form two small fastener loops at one end of the mount, and the body forms a large loop at the other end; it shows some degree of wear, suggesting that this object may have constituted one half of the clasp. The reverse side is not decorated.