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Description: | A Medieval copper alloy harness pendant suspension mount, complete with harness pendant corroded in place (at an angle). The harness pendant retains much of its enamel decoration but has lost all traces of gilding. The object measures 38.80mm in length, and if the pendant were to hang straight would be c.43mm long. The object weighs 9.45g.The suspension mount (14.40mm in depth) consists of a squarish globular stud 6.27mm wide with an integral square-sectioned projection behind (3.62x4.85mm, narrowing to 2.87x3.13mm and expending again at the end to 3.19x4.49mm). Below are two D-shaped lugs with iron staining to the outside edges, presumably from the axis bar. The pendant is still in place between, but corroded in place at an angle of almost 90 degrees.The pendant is quatrefoil in shape with a triangular projection in each angle, and depicts a square at its centre with a lion passant left on a blue enamel field. From each edge of the square projects a fleur de lis, onto a background of red enamel. It is 19.82mm wide and rather uneven through wear and damage to one side.Similar heraldic horse harness pendants can be seen in Cherry (1991) in Saunders (ed) Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum Medieval Catalogue Part 1. Harness pendants are generally dated from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, with circular and openwork examples predominating the twelfth century, more varied types in the thirteenth and fourteenth century including the enamelled and heraldic types (Griffiths, 1995, The Medieval Horse and its Equipment). Quatrefoil pendants are likely a little later in date.Nick Griffiths suggests mounts such as this one are datable to 1340 for about 20 years, when Edward III was encouraging good Anglo-French relations, the lis indicating France while the lion symbolises England (pers.comm. 2005).
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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Mount
A copper alloy harness mount…
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