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Description: | Well-preserved book clasp. The upper plate is made from a single sheet of copper alloy with the narrower end turned over into a hook. Next to the hook are two rectangular projections, and then the clasp flares gently for about three-quarters of its length. The final quarter has a steeper concave curve out to an attachment end cut into decorative outcurving scallops, and here one corner is missing. The upper plate is corroded to a powdery pale green over a rough reddish interior, but much of the decoration can still be seen. There is a line of zig-zag engraving between the two rectangular projections, then a zone of longitudinal grooving beyond this. The longitudinal grooves are short in the centre and longer towards the edges, and there is a separate copper-alloy rivet in the centre of the triangle thus formed. In the middle of the clasp is a hole with no rivet, surrounded by a pair of circular grooves. This hole is probably decorative as there is no corresponding hole in the underplate. Next come two motifs each consisting of three long grooves running to a point, then three decorative circular holes. There are grooves running inwards from the angles of the scallops, and these each have oblique lines to either side forming feather motifs. These are cut through by two separate copper-alloy rivets. On the reverse is a rectangular underplate now broken into two with a piece missing in between; this is linked to the upper plate by the three rivets. The clasp is now a little bent, but would originally have measured c. 65 mm long; the maximum width would have been c. 38 mm. The surviving dimensions are 62 x 34 mm. As this clasp would have been fixed to a leather strap attached to one cover, and clipped onto a catchpiece on the opposite cover, the thickness of the book must have been in excess of 68 mm - a large book!
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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