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Description: | Incomplete medieval gilt copper-alloy strap end with loop, late 15th century in date. It is squarish in shape with the loop projection extending from one end, the other end being open to take the strap.The loop projection is triangular in shape and possibly in the style of an animal head which has been turned through 90°, with a snout and two goggly eyes behind the pierced loop. The piercing is 2mm in diameter and 3mm deep. Two strips extend backwards from the outside of the 'eyes' to the plate. In between and behind the eyes is another roundel. A strip on either side curves in an S shape, backwards and along the end of the plate. Directly behind this roundel is a 3mm diameter piercing, which half impinges on the line of the outside edge of the plate.The edges of the plate have been badly worn and broken so it is unclear what its shape is although the incised line decoration presumably follows this shape by flanking the outside edge, and it measures 28mm square on its innermost line. An outside edge survives near the open end and stands 2.5mm deep. The open end has an ornate ogee curve to the edge, cut in the form of two elongated Ss meeting at the middle in a V shape and creating a right angle triangle at each end.Within a pair of incised lines flanking the edge are lighter incised lines in the form of a possible tree, with perhaps five spiky branches, on a background of diagonal lines. However the surface is worn and has some corrosion.Gilding remains around the edges and the terminal, and on the underside of the terminal which is very flat. A piece of cloth is also still in situ on the reverse. The backplate is separate and has now come away from the front. It has several large areas of gilding.The strap-end is remiscent of the strap-end type with hinged plate and loop (Egan and Pritchard 1991, fig.101), now thought to be book clasps; the pierced animal-head terminals turned through 90° are similar (e.g. Egan and Pritchard 1991, nos.721, 726; Egan 1998, fig. 214). The hole would have fitted over a peg in the other cover of the book. This example is, of course, rigid and not hinged, and so would not have been so easy to use as those illustrated in Egan and Pritchard; similar examples of unhinged book clasps have been recorded on the PAS database, for example at NMS-035251, NMS-9F7A90, NMS-DFED52 (all from Norfolk), and BERK-ED9750 (from Oxfordshire).The object measures 60 x 36mm and weighs 12.01g. It is late 15th century in date.
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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