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Description: | A corroded and bent cast copper-alloy post-medieval sword-belt fitting. This strap-fitting consists of a mount with three suspension loops from which a trio of hooked plates would have hung; in turn, the scabbard straps would have been attached to these plates. The mount features foliate decoration on its visible face. Such fittings are rarely found complete, rather elements or broken examples are far more common. However, an illustration of another complete sword-belt fitting can be found in Read (2001, 43; ref. 373). Such fittings 'proliferate in the 16th and 17th centuries' (Geake 2001, 35). Their design and decoration are relatively standardised.It has the appearance of two conjoined, slightly overlapping hooked plates with concomitant foliate decoration. A corroded iron rivet survives in one of the three perforations: there is one in the centre and one at each of the two terminals. Two of the original three integral loops depend from the mount (L.: c. 12.5mm, W.: c. 10.5mm, Int. dia.: c. 6.2mm; Th.: 3.7mm); both retain broken hooks with globular terminals from the hooked plates. The outer loop is bent outwards at an angle; both it and the other loop have been bent in profile as a result of old damage.The terminals of the mount are trefoilate, then comes a waist after which it widens towards the centre then narrows before widening into a lozenge above the central loop. The lower surface is plain; the front, visible, face features an elaborate scrolled foliage pattern, split down the longitudinal axis, with incised fronds trailing towards the edges and a central leaf. The object now has a largely variable dark-green patina with patches of mid-green corrosion product and the orange of the iron rivet as well as some underlying red-brown metal. In profile it has been bent into a shallow S shape.
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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