Casgliadau Arlein

"An enamelled stud with a horse motif. The circumference of the stud describes an irregular circle. A shaft of roughly ovoid cross-section emerges from the rear of the stud and terminates in an amorphous amalgam of bronze and iron corrosion. On the front the decoration is enclosed within a bronze margin. The design itself is executed in bronze, the enamel serving mainly as the background to set off the design. Areas of blue enamel remain; the rest is lost or discoloured. The motif comprises a nightmarish quadruped, almost certainly a horse, galloping across the field of the enamel. The body, limbs and tail are fairly naturalistically rendered but the long neck is arched and terminates in a grotesque head which has a large roughly crescentic cell of enamel in the middle of it. From the top of the head emerges a mane boldly rendered in bronze. This flowing mane follows the contours of the animal's body and has its upper edge defined by a zig-zag line. The body of the animal is embellished with a scroll, the shape of an S on its side, originally enamelled. Below the animal's body and hooves runs a band of bronze defined on both sides by sharp zig-zag lines and perhaps intended to signify a ground line. A similar band of bronze defined by a zig-zag upper line and a more or less straight line runs above the horse at a diagonal in the space left above the mane and the tail. It is possible that this band was intended to represent a cloud." (Evan & Metcalf 1992)