File:Early medieval gilt zoomorphic mount (FindID 207207).jpg

English: Early Anglo-Saxon mount from horse-harness. Cast copper-alloy mount with gilded Style I chip carving, dating the mount to the 6th century. The mount is a regular lozenge shape with a face-mask at each of the three remaining corners. The fourth corner is missing so we cannot say whether it was originally a symmetrical lozenge mount or the terminal of a larger object.

The centre of the mount has a circular setting which contains the remains of some enamel or paste. This is currently a pale red colour, but may have discoloured over time. It may be a decorative enamel or the fixant for a stone which is now missing. The lozenge panel surrounding the central fitting is decorated with two gilt, Style I beasts with triple-stranded ribbon bodies, a crouching leg and a roundish head with a pellet eye. There is a high relief, single ridge border around this panel followed by a broader, plain band of plate border. The three remaining corners have a face mask, two of which are partial and one of which is complete. The masks have arched eyebrows, pellet eyes, triangular noses and prominent cheekbones. The complete face mask has a flat, sub-oval panel beneath the nose. The panel is now undecorated. Contemporary parallels for this style of decoration sometimes have applied sheet silver covering the panels at the terminals, giving the distinctive Bichrome Style, which may have been the case on this mount, although there is now no remaining evidence to confirm this.

Length 33.0mm, width 32.3mm, thickness 3.3mm, weight 5.18g

This can be identified as a bridle mount from the four similar cruciform mounts from the horse-harness at Eriswell, Suffolk, grave 4116 (Fern 2005). Fern quotes many parallels, both single finds and from graves, where they can be re-used. Similar items on the PAS database include DENO-A99AB3 and SF8477. See also Mills page 69, object AS166 which has similar gilt animal decoration and very similar face masks.