This was until very recently a bit of a mystery but a recent letter from the National Museums of Scotland quotes “I should identify it as Anglo-Scandinavian. It’s ornament is clearly derived from the Scandinavian ringerike style, but the manner in which it is executed strongly suggests it was manufactured in England. The arrangement of the pair of ringerike-style animal head with ovoid eyes and extended ear and nose lappets associate this motif with that classified for the flanged mounts by David Williams as Class A Type 1. The openwork character of the mount and the presence of a fleur-de-lys at its apex are also characteristic of the flanged mount series, and date this piece to the 11th century.
“Motifs are frequently associated with specific classes of objects and I am not familiar with such hooked mounts. However, it seems likely the motif may have been borrowed from the flanged mount series (for stirrup mounts) and applied to a mount possibly for human dress, i.e. a waist belt?”
This unusual piece has approx dimentions of 60mm x 38 mm
