Byzantine Gilt Silver Belt Mount with Birds 7th-9th century A.D. A silver-gilt belt mount with two facing ducks inscribed in a tondo in repoussé technique, pearled edged and triangular ornament with volutes. See similar style in art decoration and belt elements from Bulgaria and South Crimea, in Inkova, M., 'Duck Image on a Gilt Silver Strap End: on 'Diffused' Motifs of the Early Medieval Bulgarian Culture' in Archaeologia Bulgarica, Sofia, 2003, 1, pp.83-96, figs. in pl.V. 2.42 grams, 48 mm wide (2 in.). Collection formed in the 2000s. Property of an English gentleman. The theme of the duck, inherited by the Byzantines from Sassanian art (wall painting in Eastern Turkestan, reliefs at Taq-i-Bustan, see Inkova, 2003, p.91) was widely used in the belt mounts of the Eastern Roman Empire, especially from the 7th to the 9th century A.D. (belts from Syria and from the Necropolis of Skalistoe, South Crimea). Its use in the Imperial Court of Constantinople strongly influenced that of the Empire’s neighbours, like the Bulgarian Court at Preslav. [No Reserve]