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Description: | A cast copper-alloy heraldic harness pendant of Medieval date. It is flat, shield shaped in form, with an incompete but integrally cast suspension loop at the top. The suspension loop is set at an angle of 90 degrees to the plane of the plate, is flat, oval shaped in form with a central circular aperture and missing its top edge due to old breaks or use wear. The front face of the pendant carries heraldic decoration comprising three hands, with palm facing, on a red enamelled background. The upper two hands are set within a recessed rectangular cell. The decoration and the areas surrounding the plate are extremely worn and now missing any gilding or silvering that would originally have existed. The pendant measures 50mm in length, 31mm in width,2.2mm in thickness and 13.41g in weight.The device of the red hands are associated with Ulster. The family crests of O'Neill and Adair feature the Red hand device, wity the Adair familt crest featuring three red hands similar to this heraldic pendant. The Adair family originates in Scotland, but took the crest to Ulster when the settled there in the 13th century AD.
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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