![]() ![]() ![]() Traces of red pigment and gilding are visible on the boss, which indicates that it would have been a highly decorative feature of the ceiling design. If original these nails may have been used to place the boss in situ. Two large nails protrude from inside the interior of the boss, and one has been bent to form a type of hook. The hollow boss would have been carved to fit onto a jamb of ceiling masonary. The crevices of the exterior surface have been gauged, cut and smoothed with a variety of tools, including gauges and chisels, shaping the decorative flow of the lion’s mane, tail and foliage around the outer circumference of the boss. It has been hollowed out, the interior surface showing concentric gouges, which are rough and deep. The boss has been carved in the solid, in high relief. The lion is shown gnawing on what could be either a bone, the thick stem of a leaf or the end of its own tail, which it grasps between its claws. Elements of the carving are stylistically close to stiff-leaf foliage, and as a whole the boss conveys animal and plant-like elements which combine to convey both the sinuosity of the animal and the swirl of enveloping foliage. The mane and tail of the lion have been carved so as to form the circumference of the boss. Round oak ceiling boss, dome shaped and carved with the head of a snarling lion. ![]()
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