Im ^^Mm ^^ttS ^^fegSi Fig. 17. Engraved Bronze Plate, Faversham (^). ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS by a backing of hatched gold-foil. To enumerate any but the principal objects recovered would be wearisome, and a personal inspection of the bequest now at the British Museum is recommended to any desirous of seeing the masterpieces of early Anglo-Saxon metal-work. Of exceptional rarity is the Christian monogram' (if such it be) on the end of a heavily-gilt knife-handle, and there are a few other relics from the site that may date from the seventh century, after the conversion of Kent by Augustine. Perhaps the most strik- ing are the three openwork escutcheons (see fig. 8) from a bronze bowl, for attaching chains to the rim ; in the centre is the Latin cross supported by two animals that may be meant for the hippocamp common in late Roman art. Some smaller plates from this cemetery, evidently for the same purpose, are enamelled with the graceful scroll-work that had descended from pre-Roman times and survived for some centuries in Ireland. The Latin cross occurs further on a jewelled brooch, replacing the T-shaped settings sometimes found in Kent ; but the cross may here be purely ornamental. The late Roman style is seen on an engraved buckle-plate (see fig. 17) that recalls examples from Sussex"" and Bucks'; while the animal- form considered as typical of seventh-century Teutonic art is well seen on a gilt fragment (with animals supporting a fish) and a pair of dainty gold buckles ; the jaw is pointed below, and an angular band is placed behind the eye as on the back of the Kingston brooch (fig. 4). Among the rarer specimens may be mentioned three jewelled brooches with T garnets (as pi. i. fig. 14) ; the ornamented Hp of silver-gilt (see fig. 1 6) probably belonging to a wooden drinking cup and much like one from Surrey,* where a gold pendant was also found like one from Faversham, with many roughly punched holes in the four quad- rants. The neighbouring county of Essex has also furnished paral- lels ' for the radiated brooch, the pyramidal button (as pi. i. fig. 7), garnet and blue-glass cell- work and the Scandinavian plain bronze brooch, all of which occurred in the King's Field at Faversham ; while three pottery vases of somewhat Merovingian appear- ance have been found at Faversham (see fig. 18), Kingston (p. 345), and Stamped Pottery Vase, Faversham (|). • Coll. Ant. vi. pi. xxiv. fig. 7. ' V.C.H. Bucks, i. 199. » V.C.H. Essex, i. plate at p. 322, figs. V.C.H. Sussex, i. pi. at p. 344, fig. 3. V.C.H. Surrey, i. pp. 266 (fig. 6), 265 (Farthingdown). , 13, 14, 18. Z7^
