Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 41

Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1965 in rubble from demolition of tenth-century east apse of Old Minster; Final Phase 60 (Provisional Phase 645), late eleventh-century

Old Minster

One dressed face survives; the carved face is slightly battered.

Deeply carved foliate ornament, possibly part of a capital. The dressed face is diagonal to the main pattern to the top left, and splays outwards to the back. The carving is divided into two parts by a curved vertical stem with a keeled profile. To the left there is a leaf of three elements, each hollowed. To the right there is a second, less deeply hollowed, tripartite leaf or plant stem. The leaves project forward of the stem, from which they are divided by deep V-cuts. The relief is 2.5–4 cm deep, but if the dressed face in section is set vertically or horizontally, the whole piece is seen to be in very high relief, as one would expect of a capital.

This piece has a very three-dimensional appearance and the way the curves and divisions are cut adds shadow and life. Many examples of comparable foliate ornament can be seen in the Benedictional of St Aethelwold (e.g. Wormald 1959, pls. 4, 6, 7). Winchester (Old Minster) no. 69 is of the same style and was found near-by.

Late tenth century

Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 150, no. 68