File:Early-Medieval-Anglo-Scandinavian bridle fitting or cheekpiece (FindID 498781).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper-alloy late Early-Medieval/Anglo-Scandinavian bridle fitting or cheekpiece. More than one half of the plate and the suspension loop are missing due to old breaks. The surviving fragment comprises a flat plate forming one terminal end of the entire object that is roughly oval shaped in form and section with moulded and openwork decoration on the front face. This consists of an incomplete oval(?) shaped aperture at the incomplete edge, which would have orginally been the centre of the complete plate, the plate curving downwards and outwards to an oval shaped outer edge before curving back around to the top of the plate. This creates a large oval shaped aperture at the centre of the surviving fragment with smaller triangular aperture above. Between the incomplete and complete apertures there is moulded foliate or scrollwork decoration, the outer edge of the plate having multiple projecting lobes or crenellations. At the outer edge these develop into elongated lobes with curled tips that are truncated at the top of the central aperture by a group of three vertical ribs. This gives the impression of a possible zoomorphic creature with neck curving around so that the elongated, open snout rejoins the plate at the top edge of the fragment, whcih would have originally been close to the centre of the complete object. The back face is flat and undecorated. It measures 28.94mm in length/height, 52.97mm in width, 4.22mm in thickness and 21.13g in weight.

This is a fragment from an Early-Medieval bridle fitting, probably part of a cheekpiece or similar object. The form and decoration suggest an Anglo-Scandinavian influence and the current example finds parallels with Williams' Type 1 (unpublished) cheekpieces that have projecting zoomorphic terminals. This would indicate a date range in the 11th century AD for the current example.