User:JMiall/Ormside bowl

The Ormside Bowl is a silver and glass double-bowl dating from the AD 750-800 which was found in 1823 buried next to a Viking warrior in Ormside, Cumbria. The bowl was probably looted from York by the warrior before being buried with him on his death. The bowl is one of the finest pieces of Anglian silverwork found in England.

Description
The bowl is a double-shelled cup made from 2 pieces riveted tother with dome-headed rivets and beaded collars. The surface of the bowl is decorated with a chased repousse technique. Sometime after its was originally made the bowl was converted into a drinking vessel

Inner Bowl
The inner cup is made from gilt-bronze and is riveted with studs of blue glass and silver.

The base plate of the internal bowl features 16 circular pieces of glass within a ring of cloisons and five further rivets, of which the central is missing. The gilding on the bowl was added after the other decoration.

The bowl's lining could have been made in York as a blue-glass stud matching the bowl's was found there.

Outer Bowl
The outer shell is made from gilt-silver, the rim once had a U-sectioned strip of ungilded silver although this has now mostly been lost. The strip was originally attached using 4 clips in the shape of animal heads although 2 of these have also been lost. The bowl's gilt-silver exterior is decorated with Anglo-Saxon style intertwined fabulous creatures amid Continental style vines, the frontal gaze of some of the creatures on the bowl is a common occurance in carvings of this type. These decorations show plants, grapes, fruit, animals and birds in both naturalistic and grotesque style. Another beaded band is riveted on in four places outside the rim. These rivets have square mountings, in one of which a piece of blue glass survives. The external base plate features five domed rivets. The interlacing cruciform decoration between these rivets has been made using a repoussé technique. The bowl may also once have had a footring made from gilded wire.

Comparisons
The Ormside bowl is similar in aspects of its style to several bowls from the St Ninian's Isle Treasure but is closer in style to an lost early eighth century hanging-bowl from the River Witham. The decoration on the bowl has been compared to the St Petersburg Bede, Barberini Gospels, Gandersheim Casket and Rupertus Cross. The conical bosses on the base of the bowl resemble features of the Kildalton Cross.

The embossed and fine-lined filigreed designs on the bowl have been compared to those of the Wye Down pendant and the Book of Durrow leading to it being dated by G. Haseloff to 650-700.

Exhibition
The bowl has previously been displayed in York Museum and was temporarily displayed in room 2 of the British Museum until 27 June 2010. This was the first time a regional museum has shown its collection at the British Museum and Margaret Hodge the Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport encouraged everybody to view the exhibit. It returned to the Yorkshire Museum for its reopening on Yorkshire Day after a £2m refurbishment. There is also a small exhibition about the bowl in St James' Church in Ormside.

(Wye Down BM#=1893,0601.189)