Gold Plaque

AN00032720_001_l. Almost square gold plaque with an attachment hole at each corner. A niello-inlaid line acts as a border on the lower three sides, but the blank area around each hole indicates that they were filled by a circular bossed rivet. The niello-inlaid decoration consists of a half-length zoo-anthropomorphic symbol of St John with eagle head and human hands which hold a book and pen. Around the evangelist symbol is an inscription. The back is undecorated, except for a free-hand incised assembly mark. 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.