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Description: | A cast copper alloy incomplete anthropomorphic bracket from a Post-Medieval chafing dish. 16th or 17th century. This is one of probably three brackets that that would have projected up from the wall of the chafing dish like the figurehead of a ship.The end is in the shape of a three-dimensional human head with a worn nose and engraved eyes and lines of the hair. The 'shoulder' attached to the head is 15.6mm wide, triangular in section and concave. Each side of this 'shoulder' is decorated with three engraved dots. From this point the bracket becomes flat (thickness 5.3mm, max height 15.7mm) and tapers slightly. At the widest point there is a hole 3.8mm in diameter through the bracket. This would have held a hinge bar on which the swivelling dish support/handle was hinged. The final element (which would have been riveted on to the wall of the chafing dish) is missing.The object has dark brown and dark green patina. The edges are quite abraded and covered in light green corrosion product. There is what appears to be rusting around the hole which may have been from an iron hinge.Chafing dishes were designed to keep food warm at a table. They held hot coals and the brackets with swivel supports supported a dish of food above. Although going out of fashion at the end of the 17th century chafing dishes were still in use in poorer households in the middle of the 18th century.This looks similar to a bracket illustrated in Lewis, 1973 'Some Types of Metal Chafing Dish' in The Antiquaries Journal Vol. 53, pages 59-69, plate XIII, d.F1 which is dated 1575-1650. There are also similar examples in Bailey 'Finds Identified', 2000, pages 58 to 59.Weight 29.1g. Length 51.4mm.
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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