British Museum

The Mold Cape (Bronze Age), in the British Museum.

The Mold Gold Cape found by workmen quarrying for stone in a burial mound in Mold, Flintshire, North Wales in 1833. In the centre of the mound there was a stone lined cist containing an inhumation burial and the cape was found on the shoulders of the skeleton, pieces of sheet bronze were also recovered which may have formed a backing to the gold cape. Additionally in the grave were numerous amber beads, some estimates put the number of beads in the hundreds although only one bead remains at the British Museum. The contents of the Grave were all small and fragmentary and became distributed between many people. The British museum acquired most of the cape three years after its discovery (now 1836) and acquired further pieces in subsequent years.

The cape dates to the Bronze Age and was beaten from a single ingot of gold, as already mentioned the cape may have had a backing of sheet bronze to help strengthen it. Closely spaced holes around the collar and base suggest that it may have once been sewn to some sort of cloth or leather.

As a piece of sheet gold work the Mold gold cape is unique both as a cape and also the the design of it.

In the photo you can see that the cape is supported for display on a fibreglass frame.

The cape is currently in the British Museum in London (March 2008) although it has previously also been briefly on display near to where it was found in Wales.