|
Date: |
|
Description: | Around half of a damaged medieval copper-alloy sheet buckle plate. The rectangular plate would have been formed of a sheet folded double with a projecting, recessed pin notch; the plate has broken through at these two weak points at which it was folded. The buckle frame and pin have been lost and the sheet has since been folded again. Further, both terminals of the sheet have been abraded. At the attachment end one of the rivet holes has been worn through completely while there is a break at the other extending to a split up the sheet. The upper surface of the sheet is decorated within an incised border. With the buckle end uppermost a bird standing right can be discerned. The head is facing right, complete with engraved eye and beak. The breast is right and decorated with stippling with the plain wing behind. The lower half of the bird continues past the bend in the sheet but is more difficult to discern due to wear and corrosion. It would appear to consist of a thin tail with oval terminal and incised oval within. Foliate motifs emanating from the junction of tail and oval may represent further plumage, although there are four such motifs depending from the uppermost border above the bird's head. The may suggest a wooded environment or might be purely decorative. However, this all given, an alternative animal might be suggested if the plate is viewed horizontally, as when worn. This shows a beast travelling left with ?gaping jaws; the bird's beak are ears and the wing a foreleg. It is therefore tentatively suggested that both viewings are valid, a deliberate optical illusion. The era of such zoomorphic incised decoration spanned the 14th and 15th centuries (for a similarly decorated strap-end see IOW-AD2456 on this database). The artefact has corroded to a mid-green colour. It has suffered cracks and bends other than that which means that it is now folded in two. | Subjects: | plate | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Webley, Robert - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
BUCKLE
Around half of a damaged…
-
Buckle
An incomplete copper alloy object,…
-
BUCKLE
An incomplete copper alloy object,…
-
-
buckle
Incomplete copper alloy buckle plate.…
-
BUCKLE
Incomplete copper alloy buckle plate.…
-
BUCKLE
Incomplete copper alloy buckle plate.…
-
Buckle
A cast and sheet copper…
-
Mount
A fragment of a copper…
-
BROOCH
An incomplete copper alloy Roman…
|