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Description: | Incomplete cast copper alloy horse harness pendant, lozenge-shaped in plan, and retaining its suspension mount with hinge at one end and an integral cylindrical stud on the back of the opposite rounded end. The face of the pendant has a chevron with the remains of blue (azure) enamel on a green (vert) enamelled background, surrounding three recessed roundels ('torteaux' if coloured and 'bezants' if gold or silver) which have been inlaid with green enamel as the background. So the arms are vert, chevron azure, three torteaux vert. The surrounding plane is mainly missing so that it is unclear if there were other devices above and below the chevron, and therefore difficult to pin down the associated Cornish family. The closest parallels to these arms are those of the Opie family of Bodmin and Penhargard in Helland, which is the closest to the findspot, who have azure roundels on a gold chevron, but three gold garbs also (Pascoe, 1979, 80); the Boleigh / Boligh family of Lansallos near Fowey who have gold bezants on a black chevron; and the Coswarth family of Coswarth, Colan near Newquay, who are the only family to have an azure chevron, with gold bezants, but also three azure wings (Pascoe, 1979, 32). The original pendant would have been larger and perhaps lozenge-shaped in plan, but more likely shield-shaped like the example referenced below.Read (1988) illustrates a very similar shield-shaped pendant with "on a chevron three roundels" which he refers to as an "unrecorded variant of the relatively minor Cornwall family arms" found at Ringmore, Devon, on page 92, No.566, which is dated from the 14th century.Read (2001) illustrates two similar suspension mounts with rounded ends, hemispherical sections and integral studs on page 52, Fig.31, Nos.402-3, which are dated from the 14th century.
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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