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Description: | A cast lead pilgrim badge of medieval date. The front of the badge is moulded to represent the head of St Thomas Becket, suggesting that this was a product of his shrine at Canterbury, Kent. Only the head and the Bishop's mitre survive, but his body would probably have been represented too.The archbishop wears a mitre which has a central vertical panel defined by rows of pellets. The panel is decorated with a lattice work of lines with pellets in the lozenges. Further rows of pellets demarcate the band along the base of the mitre, and the sides. These areas are also decorated with pellets. The top of the mitre has broken but it appears to have been topped with a cross. The face has well-defined brows and nose, a little hair on each side of the face, eyes consisting of pronouced raised circles within less well defined almond-shapes and a mouth formed from two short horizontal ridges. The neck is broken. The right side of the badge is bent forwards. There is no evidence of a pin on the reverse. The lead is patinated to a rich honey colour. This type of pilgrim badge is one of a well-known series of badges that are miniature copies of the life-sized enriched mitred-bust reliquary of St Thomas located in Canterbury Catherdral in the 14th century. The bust was adorned with many jewels, which are represented on this lead miniature by the series of moulded pellets. Offerings made at Canterbury Cathedral show that the popularity of the head reliquary peaked in 1420. The badge would have been worn on the hat or on the outer clothing and would have been used as an amulet. The supposed miracle-working powers of reliquaries was also thought to transfer onto the objects copied from them, hence the popularity of pilgrim badges.Compare SOMDOR-29F941, LIN-D80A35 and NCL-AE4D13.
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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