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Description: | Possible book clasp of unusual form. The basic component is a piece of rectangular copper-alloy sheet with one end narrowed (by square cut-outs) and bent into a hook. The plate is shorter and wider than most early post-medieval book clasps (12 x 25 mm); it is not decorated and the metal is dark grey, without the usual rough reddish brown patina. There is a small, well-concealed separate copper-alloy rivet at the end opposite the hook; it is 4 mm long and has a slightly burred-over end. Beyond this is a larger circular hole, 2 mm in diameter, which has been pushed through from the reverse to the front. The other end, closer to the hook, has an underplate which has been broken off short, and may once have extended the full length of the upper plate. There is, next to the larger hole, a smaller hole which passes through both plates; it probably once held a rivet. Next along is another well-concealed copper-alloy rivet, visible from the reverse, and rather larger than the first. This may serve to hold to the upper surface a D-shaped pierced lug which, although at a slight angle, basically runs parallel to the long axis of the object. In conclusion, it looks like a transitional piece between medieval and early post-medieval book-clasps. The hook is only found on the post-medieval type, but these never have a perforated lug. A perforation through which a cord could be tied, and used to pull the clasp off the catchpiece, is characteristic of the more common type of medieval book-clasp, usually with hinged end (see Egan 1998, nos. 919-925). What the larger hole was used for is a mystery; holes are present on the medieval type, but they engaged with a peg on the opposite cover, whereas the hooked type engaged with a catchpiece on the edge of the cover and could never have stretched over to engage with a peg. | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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