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Description: | Medieval cast copper alloy pedestal type seal matrix. The matrix has a circular face with a central design of a hare blowing a horn and riding another animal, probably a hound, within a line border encircled by the legend. Damage to the lower edge has obscured some of the impersonal legend. It appears to read * IE VOYS[...]O(Y)S. The legend starts with a star. The matrix has a pedestal type handle rising from the face in six facets, narrowing as it rises to a waist from which it expands out slightly before ending in a flat, transverse, oval loop at the top. The loop is broken at the top with an old break. It is 18.2mm in diameter and 16.8mmm tall; it weighs 6.93 grams.This hunting satire was a popular theme on personal seals throughout the 14th century when circular seals with anonymous designs predominated (Harvey and MacGuiness 1996:88-9).Malcolm Jones has commented: When complete the legend would have read IE VOYS A BOYS -- this is usually interpreted as a mistake for IE VAYS A BOIS "I go to the wood" -- but given that a 'huntsman' is sounding his horn I suggest that IE VOYS should have its normal meaning here, i.e. "I see" -- the huntsman is letting the rest of the hunt know that he has seen the quarry in the wood, so that I should be inclined to translate "I see (the quarry) in the wood"(29th June 2013).
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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