|
Date: |
|
Description: | Incomplete medieval copper-alloy composite strap end with cast spacer. The spacer has an openwork panel, a rectangle measuring 17.7 by 6.7mm. It ends with a waisted terminal above a rounded, acorn knop. On one side a copper alloy sheet plate is soldered, the same width as the spacer, but extending beyond it by 10.9 mm to allow for the leather of the girdle. The other plate has been lost. The abraded attachment edge of the surviving plate has three semicircular removals, the central one with a groove - this Egan and Pritchard (1993:149) note is characteristic of composite strap ends with forked spacers. Below, the sheet generally follows the form of the spacer, thinning to travel over the sides of the openwork panel. This, being a natural weak point, is where around a third of one strip has been lost; the other thinned strip is missing entirely. The sheet plate only differs from the spacer in the trefoil arch cut-out which is located at the base of the openwork panel, pointing downwards towards the knop. The knop is thickened by the addition of a sub-circular element to give it a maximum thickness of 3.4mm (including rivet). The applied element is faceted at the tip and decorated with cross-hatched incisions above to create an acorn motif. A central rivet attaches it to the sheet plate and spacer. A second rivet attaches the sheet to the spacer just above the openwork panel; on the back of the spacer the area around it is lowered. The object is 49.8mm long, up to 13.9mm wide and c. 1.8mm thick; it weighs 3.35grams.This strap end can be compared with two composite examples illustrated in Egan and Pritchard (1993:148-9), nos. 704, 705. They all have spacers of similar form with openwork rectangular panels; the sheet plates have also broken as they narrow to each side of the panel. They have thickened acorn knops created by the addition of separately applied elements. Further to this, no. 704 has the same trefoil arch, while no. 705 has an identical attachment edge (missing on no. 704). Although the published examples differ slightly in their surface decoration, they both have a motif of an acorn on a sinuous stem within the openwork panel. This is a delicate piece and has been lost on no. 704 as it emerges from the sheet plate. However, no such motif appears to have been present on this strap end. Indeed, this artefact is plain above and below the panel unlike no. 704, for example, which has an embellished leaf in a far longer zone above the knop. As Egan and Pritchard note (ibid.:149), although parallels exist for such composite strap ends (including SF-3583C2 on this database) no two are precisely alike.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
STRAP END
A copper-alloy composite strap end…
-
STRAP END
A copper-alloy composite strap end…
-
STRAP END
Incomplete composite strap-end. Rectangular plate,…
-
STRAP END
An incomplete cast copper-alloy spacer…
-
-
-
-
STRAP END
A complete medieval cast copper-alloy…
-
STRAP END
An incomplete cast copper-alloy spacer…
-
|