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Description: | Rectangular copper-alloy strap fitting which may either be of 'bar-mount with suspension loop' type (Egan and Pritchard 1991, nos. 1164, 1189-91) or which may alternatively be a book-clasp. It is made out of a long piece of rectangular strip folded in half and with two recesses cut at the fold. The fold is not sharp, but has a rounded gap. The two halves both have a 3 mm diameter central hole and a 2 mm diameter rivet hole further towards the attachment end. One half is decorated at the attachment end with a very worn transverse groove across the rivet hole, and a pair of notches out of the long sides closer to the attachment end. The whole object is now a little bent. If this is a 'bar-mount with loop' it will have been attached to the belt transversely, with the rounded gap at the fold carrying a loop into which a purse hanger or similar could be fastened. However all of Egan and Pritchard's examples are of chunky cast copper-alloy with a slender loop which is fastened to the rivet at an expanded terminal. Alternatively, it could have functioned as a book clasp by being fixed to the end of a strap extending from one cover of the book. The central hole would then have been fixed over a peg attached to the other cover. The rounded gap at the fold would have held a cord making it easier to get hold of the clasp when opening the book. A similar loop and peg-hole can be seen on other undoubted book clasps; see Egan 1998, fig. 214.
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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