Wayland's Work: Anglo-Saxon Art, Myth & Material Culture
from the 4th to the 7th Century

Stephen Pollington    Lindsay Kerr    Brett Hammond

This book is big in size and scope. Here you will find new analyisis, images and information about early English art and the culture that inspired it. Wayland's Work contains 226 black & white drawings and 62 colour plates. Nearly all of these images were commissioned for this book - many show previously unpublished artifacts. Nothing on this scale has been achieved for nearly 100 years. This is the book about the origins and cultural significance of Anglo-Saxon art.

It has sometimes been suggested that in all the metalwork and archaeological oddments we have from the Anglo-Saxon period, there is nothing one could call ‘art’. The contributors to this book believe that not only was there considerable artistry in the output of early Anglo-Saxon workshops, but that it was vigorous, complex and technically challenging.

The designs found on Anglo-Saxon artefacts is never mere ornament: in a society which used visual and verbal signals to demonstrate power, authority, status and ethnicity, no visual statement was ever empty of meaning. The aim of this work is to prompt a better understanding of Anglo-Saxon art and the society which produced it.

All three contributors have collaborated on the book with Stephen Pollington responsible for the text, Lindsay Kerr for the black and white drawings, and Brett Hammond for (with the exception of the Staffordshire Hoard) artefact research and colour photography. Between them they have assembled in these pages much information and many previously unpublished illustrations which show a wide variety of artefacts, designs and motifs. It is hoped that this will help bring about a wider knowledge and appreciation of Anglo-Saxon art.

226 black & white illustrations - 62 colour plates

£70   hardback  ISBN 978 1898281566  544 pages    30cm x 30cm