The Markyate Mount

WESTERN/MINOR ARTS: METALWORK/ART MARKET; IRISH; (part of horse harness); found in Markyate, Hertfordshire; (8/9C. AD); art market; gilt-bronze h: 6.1 cm; Sotheby's Auction Catalogue, 7/8/91, #79; BRILLIANT GIFT JAN 19 1993; THE MARKYATE MOUNT,; 8th-9th Century A.D.; The Property of John Carter, Esq. and Mrs P. Green; 79; An Irish Gilt-Bronze Mount, found in Markyate, Hertfordshire, 8th-9th Century A.D., of narrow, somewhat rectangular form, with slightly protruding corners, with a bearded head projecting from each end, two large loops behind each head, decorated with chip-carved ornament of two confronted fish, their bodies joined by an intertwining ornament in the centre, their heads below the chin of one of the bearded heads, their tails below the chin of the other, the two recessed panels between the bodies of the fishes with a faceted interlacing design, 6.1cm. (2 3/8 in.); Provenance: Found in 1955 in a dahlia bed by the owners' mother, who was herself Irish, at the family's home at the old Vicarage, (later pulled down), at Markyate. The dahlia bed was roughly fifty yards from the Old Roman Road of Watling Street.; Literature:; Bruce-Mitford 1964, pp. 219-220; Youngs (ed.), Work of Angels, pp. 118-119, no. 116, fig.; 116; On loan: The British Museum, London, October, 1955, to March, 1991; The Markyate mount is probably from an articulated horse harness. It is related to a mount from the ship-burial of a Viking noblewoman at Oseberg, Norway. See Youngs (ed.), The Work of Angels, p. 118, no. 115, illustrated in colour on p. 158. It is suggested that the Markyate mount was one of a series of mounts intended to fit one into the other, with leather attachments. Similar holes for keying are found on Irish harness mounts found in Norway, see Mahr 1932, pl. 35, nos. 7. 8. For a full description and discussion of the; Markyate mount and the fish as a decorative motif see; Youngs (ed.), The Work of Angels, pp. 118-119. For a discussion of the bearded head, see Youngs (ed.), The Work of Angels, nos. 135 and 168 (a mould).; £20,000-30,000