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Description: | A Medieval heraldic copper alloy horse harness pendant dating from 1300-1370. It is a quatrefoil shape; see "The London Museum Medieval Catalogue", 1940, page 118, figure 38V, and the design is of four lions rampant. It is complete with its suspension loop; and is otherwise also complete; but some edges have been slightly nibbled. It has virtually all its red enamel, and also has some gilding on the front and on the reverse. Otherwise it has a dark brown, slightly granular finish.It is a small pendant being 24.67mm long including the loop x 18.54mm wide, and is 2.02mm thick. The loop is 4.87mm thick. It weighs 3.00gm.The arms are, or (gold), four lions rampant, one in each quarter. Quarters one and four are sable (black), and two and three are gules (red). The enamel from lions one and four is missing, but as the arms can only be Hainalt, in the Low Countries, they must have been black. The pendant almost certainly belonged to the retinue of Philippa of Hainalt, the wife of Edward III. See the illustration, of a normal heater shield pendant, in Steven Ashley's, "Medieval Armorial Horse furniture from Norfolk", Page 14, item 106, and the description on page 39, for an example of these arms. It may be that this pendant belonged to the period before 1328, when the marriage took place, or after the marriage, to represent the Queen. But it is also likely that the retainer had half the pendants of Hainalt, and the rest of England, decorating his horse. For evidence of this see PAS Database record IHS-605777. This is a pendant where the two sets of arms are impaled for the marriage; the three lions (leopards) of England on the left, and the four lions of Hainalt on the right.
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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Cast copper alloy heraldic shield-shaped…
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