Alfred Jewel
A gold jewel with an enamelled figure under rock crystal and the words ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’.
The jewel was found in Somerset in 1693, near where Alfred hid from the Danes. It was probably the handle of an æstel, a reading pointer Alfred sent to his bishops with his translations. It is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Materials: Gold, cloisonné enamel, rock crystal
Manufacture: A cloisonné enamel plaque beneath a polished rock crystal, set in gold with a hollow animal-head socket.
The inscription AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN round the edge.
The hollow animal head at the bottom, probably for a reading pointer.