8th-9th century AD. A gold belt hole guard of crescentic form, decorated with chip-carved palmette motifs, three attachment pins to the reverse. Cf. Brown, K.R., Kidd, D., Little, C.T., From Attila to Charlemagne, Arts of the Early Medieval Period in the Metropolitan Meum of Art, Yale, 2000, p.175, figs.15.13, 15.14, forparable mounts from the Vrap treasure. 5.51 grams, 20mm wide (3/4"). Collection formed in the 2000s. Property of an English gentleman. The mount was probably part of aposite belt, decorated with scrollwork in Byzantine style. Scholars debate whether these belts were produced in the Eastern Roman capital or if they were realised by workshops of the Avar Khaganate, possibly with Roman matrices for producing sheet ornaments. These horseshoe-shaped mounts (called hole-guards) were ed to reinforce the adjtment holes in the belt. [No Reserve]