Casgliadau Arlein

Ox-head escutcheon with flat hollowed-out back and top, projecting at right angles to rest on the top of a wooden stave-bucket and surmounted by two vertical circular ears forming a slot to receive the end of a handle and each perforated centrally for a pin securing the handle. The horns are short, forward-curving, and tipped with plain balls. The face is only slightly concave at the side and the muzzle is square and has two pits to represent the nostrils. The eyes are represented by two deep oval pits, probably for inlay or ornamental stones, now lost; two slight grooves, representing folds of the skin, are visible above one eye. The escutcheon was fastened to the top-most hoop of the bucket by two iron rivets passing through the main axis of the head, and traces of the uppermost of these remain.