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Description: | A copper-alloy personal seal matrix of Medieval date.The central device, engraved into the circular printing face, depicts a hare seated on the back of a hound, standing left. The hare is holding and blowing a hunting horn. When printed, the legend extends clockwise from 12 o'clock, and reads: '*SOHOV ROBEN'. The handle extends vertically upwards from behind the printing face and is of hexagonal section, tapering towards the top, where it flares into a trefoil loop with basal ridge. A corroded remnant of iron, presumably part of its original chain, survives within the loop's perforation.Dimensions: 24.9mm high, 19.8mm wide (diameter of printing face). Weight: 11.23g.A similar matrix is illustrated and discussed by Harvey and McGuinness (1996: 89, fig. 81), who suggest that anonymous matrices of this type probably date from after 1300. A further, even closer, parallel is SWYOR-1017A8, found at Darrington, West Yorkshire. The following discussion is taken from this record:Irene Szymanski has commented on a similar matrix as follows: "This entertaining little matrix bears a subject often found in the marginalia of mediaeval manuscripts, "the world upside down", i.e., examples of reversals of the norm: favoured topics include women taking on men's rôles and animals those of humans (see ref. for further details). This seal illustrates a double joke, for not only is the hare taking on a man's rôle, but a hunting dog is being ridden by his normal prey, a hare, who is blowing a hunting-horn into the bargain."The legend reads: "SOHOV ROBEN" which is in a form of French. A colloquial translation could be 'Tally-ho Fido'! 'Sohov' is a French hunting cry that would probably have been familiar to everyone in the countryside. 'Roben' was probably a stereotypical and generic name for a hound, and is probably a derivative of 'Robin' (Irene Szymanski record sheet 117a, unpublished).
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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