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Description: | A complete copper-alloy book clasp of late medieval date, perhaps 14th or 15th century. It is elaborate in style and rectangular in shape, formed from two overlapping rectangular sheets, and measures in total 41.22mm in length and 33.18mm in width.
Each of the long edges of the clasp have two trefoil holes cut out of them, which alternate with three copper-alloy rivets with large flat round heads, one at either end and one central one. All but one of these six rivets survive, and traces of gilding can be seen on them. There is also a fragment of canvas-like textile between one rivet and one of the copper-alloy sheets.
As well as these disc-headed rivets along the edges of the mount there are also three copper-alloy rivets down the centre where the sheets overlap, and two pairs of smaller copper-alloy rivets, one at either end of each plate, inside the larger rivets.
The back face of this object is complex. There is a separate central copper-alloy pin of rectangular cross-section, which runs along the centre of the clasp. It has a slightly expanded rounded perforated terminal, projecting a little from one short side of the clasp, before being broken across the perforation. The pin passes through three rectangular pierced lugs to hold the two plates together. The two pairs of smaller rivets seen on the front each hold a longitudinal U-shaped tube of copper alloy in place, one on each sheet, either side of the central rectangular-section pin. These tubes each have a slightly expanded and bifurcated terminal at one end; at the other end it is possible that a similar terminal is now missing (this is the same end as the broken rounded terminal of the rectangular-section pin).
It was originally recorded that the three pierced lugs were made integrally with one of the plates, but if so it would be hard to explain the three central rivet heads visible on the front which are exactly coincident with the pierced lugs on the reverse.
Geoff Egan has agreed that this object is likely to be an elaborate late-medieval book-clasp, although no close parallel has yet been found. | Subjects: | clasp | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Minter, Faye - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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