Censer Cover

Censer Cover

Archaeology

AN00034893_001_l. Cast, copper alloy openwork censer-cover. It is of architectural form, resembling a church tower with a plinth at the base decorated on all four sides with punched ornament. At each corner is a perforated lug, through which a narrow rod attached to a suspension chain passed, allowing the cover to be raised so that the bowl could be filled with incense. Above the base is a four-sided openwork arcade, composed of rectilinear columns with stepped bases and round-headed arches, all decorated with punched dots and crescents. Each triangular gable above has five rows of scalloped shingles and a stubby animal head projects from each angle like a gargoyle. The tie-beams of three of the gables are decorated with punched ornament as before, but the fourth bears an inscription in Old English. The inscription is badly spaced, and the last letter appears on the side of the projecting animal head at the corner of the gable. The domicular roof consists of four openwork lozenge-shaped panels decorated in relief, with ridged borders ornamented with a double row of punched crescents. At the bottom of each panel is a foliate spray. Standing on this is a bird, its elongated body decorated with punching. The head is turned back to bite at another foliate spray lying across the field. Immediately above is a similar bird, upside-down, below a lozenge-shaped motif. The roof is crowned by an oval knop surmounted by a boldly modelled animal head. All these images are © Trustees of the British Museum. These free low-resolution images are covered also under the British Museum's Terms and Conditions (http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_this_site/terms_of_use/free_image_service.aspx). The full image collection is available at: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database.aspx where you can also order high resolution copies.

British Museum

10th-11th Century