7th century Saxon gold sword pommel found in a field – Noonans Mayfair auction house / SWNSA stunning gold Saxon sword pommel that was unearthed in a field in Leicestershire, England by an 81-year-old woman has sold at auction for $22,000 (£16k).
The rare 7th century artifact was found in 2021 while the long-time metal detector enthusiast was searching a field during a local gathering of detectorists.
They told her that there was nothing to be found in the field where she was searching, but she persevered and found the gold pommel seven inches beneath the ground.
Described as “a beautiful example of fine Anglo-Saxon gold”, the sword handle decorated by beaded wire filigree features two dragon-like beasts facing each other, with their heads and front paws touching, and an interlaced snake-like pattern on the reverse side (pictured below).
“This was a stunning piece,” said Nigel Mills, Artifact and Coin expert at Noonans Mayfair auction house. “The imagery displayed would have imbued a mystical power to the sword.”
“Further research has shown that the town where it was found, Billesdon, means ‘sword hill’.
“So it’s very apt that the pommel—which we think would have belonged to an Anglo-Saxon chief who probably lost it in a battle with a Viking—was found there.”
Weighing 20.5 grams, the pommel—which the Leicester Museum declined to purchase—would have been fixed to the end of the sword handle both as a counterbalance and to stop the hand slipping.
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The woman who found the pommel, who wished to remain anonymous, has been metal detecting for 60 years. When she started detecting back in the 1960s people asked her what she was doing, and she always told them she was “looking for bombs”. Since then, she has found many Medieval and Roman coins, but the pommel discovery has been one of the most exciting.
“I was at a local detector meeting searching a field that everybody said had nothing in it when I had a signal from my Minelab Deus 2.”
“After digging to a depth of seven inches, I discovered a gold sword pommel.”
She will use her half of the sale price to buy a new car, while the other half will be given to the landowner.
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The auction experts said the artifact compares with the detectorist-found Staffordshire hoard of gold jewelry, while the motif of the confronting beasts can also be seen on a shield from the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
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