Copper-alloy, garnet and gold; 3.03 grams, 15.30 mm. 6th-7th century AD. Sword pyramids were a short-lived fashion in slider-mounts, used for suspending high-class scabbards from the belt. The present example is contructed as four conjoined rhomboids with a flat rectangular top. Each face features a sub-triangular setting in each corner, with four quadrangular settings between. The quadrangular settings contained garnets, of which twelve remain; interestingly on one face the missing garnets reveal stamped gold foils which were added to very high-status items in order to impart additional reflectiveness to the overlying garnets. The sub-triangular settings probably contained organic material of which traces remain - bone, shell or possibly even meerschaum - with a shiny, opaque, creamy-white surface which contrasted with the sparkling red stones. The top features a rectangular depression which may have held a further garnet. The pyramid is cast hollow and the suspension/slider bar on the reverse is complete. While sword pyramids are not uncommon, examples with foil-backed garnets are rare and indicate that the owner was of very high status. Reference: MacGregor, A. & Bolick, E. A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections (Non-Ferrous Metals), BAR British Series 230, 1993, pp.216 item 36.26. Published: Hammond, Brett. British Artefacts, volume I - Early Anglo-Saxon. Very fine condition. Found near Snettisham, Norfolk 2009.