Volume 4: South-East England
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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 69, Hampshire 
Overview
Object type: Foliate fragment
Measurements: H. 8 > 4 cm (3.1 > 1.6 in); W. 13.5 > 8 cm (5.3 > 3.1 in); D. 6 > 1 cm (2.4 > 0.4 in)
Stone type: Greyish-yellow, medium-grained, oolitic limestone; Combe Down Oolite, Great Oolite Formation of the Bath area, Great Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 607, 609
Corpus volume reference: Vol 4 p. 306
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Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 25
Evidence for Discovery
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 677), late eleventh-century
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
No dressed face survives; the carved face is slightly battered.
Description
Deeply carved foliate ornament, possibly part of a capital. There are two tripartite branches, each with a wide-narrow-wide moulding. The V between the branches is expanding and almost 3 cm deep. One certainly, and perhaps both, of the narrow mouldings have cable twisting. The two branches are not symmetrical. To the left the outer edge is concave; to the right, the piece splays towards the back in a flat well-preserved lower surface. The upper part of this edge is slightly set forward as if another element of the carved ornament was to start above.
Discussion
This piece is very three-dimensional. A capital with similar elements can be seen in the Benedictional of St Aethelwold, fol. 92v (reproduced in Warner and Wilson 1910), below the scribe. Winchester (Old Minster) nos. 67–8 are in the same style and were found near-by. Nos. 67–9 may be part of the same composition but the pieces do not join.
Date
Late tenth century
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 150, no. 70
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes
