to the bishop of Sherborne of that name, A.D. 817—867, who was the chief counsellor of Ethelwulf[1]. These relics supply admirable illustrations of the champ-levé process, as practised in the ninth century.
Reverse. |
Alfred's Jewel. Obverse. |
Profile. |
More precious even than the ring of Ethelwulf is an example of a somewhat different process of enamelling upon gold, the jewel of Alfred, now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. This ornament was discovered in 1693 near Athelney abbey, in a part of Somersetshire which had often been visited by Alfred, and to which he had retreated when worsted by the Danes, A.D. 878. It is formed of gold, elaborately wrought in a peculiar kind of filigree, mixed with chased and engraved work. The legend around the edge of the jewel, ✠ AELFRED MEC HEHT GEVVRCAN, (Aelfred Ordered me to be wrought,) is cut in bold characters, the intervening spaces being pierced, so that the crystal within is seen[2]. The face is formed of a piece of rock-crystal, four-tenths of an inch in
- ↑ Archæologia, vol. iv. p. 47.
- ↑ A full account of the numerous conjectures as to the use for which this jewel was destined, and the import of the figure which forms the principal ornament, has been given by Mr. Duncan in the catalogue of the Ashmolean collection. Representations of it were given by Dr. Musgrave, Phil. Trans, xx. 441; Hiekes, ib, xxii. 464; Ling. Sept. Thes. i. pp. viii. 142, and several other authors. It has formed the subject of a beautiful illuminated plate in Mr. Shaw's Dresses and Decorations, from which, by his obliging permission, the representations here given have been taken, and carefully compared with the original, under the accurate eye of Mr. Orlando Jewitt.
