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Description: | Hookplate from a book clasp. Basically rectangular, one end is slightly flared and shaped into two lobes, and is now damaged with one corner missing. There is a separate copper-alloy rivet in each lobe, and beyond these there is decoration of three indented circles. There is a fourth circle in the centre of the hookplate, and to one side of this is a shallow rectangular projection. This is odd, as the opposite edge is smooth with no hint of a broken-off pair to the projection. Further up the plate is another possible copper-alloy rivet, and then the plate narrows to the bent-under hook. The object is quite corroded, and on the reverse is lots of iron corrosion. The rivets may have held an iron plate, perhaps with the leather of the book cover sandwiched in between. At 36 x 14 mm surviving dimensions) the clasp is quite small. See Margeson 1993 (Norwich Households, East Anglian Archaeology 58) for the way in which these book clasps were used.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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