Rock Crystal Jar from the Galloway Hoard,
The Galloway Hoard was buried around 900 A.D., and contains an unprecedented assemblage of precious artifacts and materials from Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, Persia and even as far as Central Asia.
The gold filigree-mounted rock crystal jar was of Anglo-Saxon manufacture, and the quality of materials and craftsmanship places among the greatest examples of Anglo-Saxon metal work. A Latin inscription on the base reading H Y G V A L D E P : F A C : I U S S (“Bishop Hyguald had me made”) identifies it as having come from a Northumbrian cathedral treasury, although no bishop named Hyguald has been found in the patchy surviving church records of the 9th century.
The rock crystal itself, however, long predates the gold mount. It was carved with lobes that when viewed upside down look like the acanthus leave layers of Corinthian column. The wear on the hard material and the great skill needed to carve it point to it having been made in the Roman Empire. It was the capital of miniature column — several of these objects are in the collection of the Vatican Museums — and bears a central drilled hole originally used to hold the column parts together.
It seems the carved crystal top, long separated from the rest of the column, was treasured as an heirloom for centuries. Hundreds of years later, it was flipped upside down and ornamented with gold in a unique filigree technique using spirals of twisted and plaited wire and granulation. The drilled hole was alighted with a gold spout. It was probably used to hold a small amount of liquid, a precious substance, perhaps a relic.
When it was placed in the fine silver pot with the other objects in the Galloway Hoard, the rock crystal jar was wrapped in linen, then placed inside a leather pouch lined with a layer of opulent samite (a decorated silk that originated in Asia or Byzantium).
Measuring roughly 5 cm (2 inches) tall, it is composed of an ancient carved rock crystal body repurposed into a jar with a gold-mounted spout and base.
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