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Description: | An incomplete Medieval (1350 - 1450) copper alloy strap-end 'buckle' consisting of a damaged socket and a fragment of probable "lyre-shaped" openwork frame only. Traces of silvering or perhaps niello are visible in the grooved decoration of the socket end. The object measures 34.91x31.60x4.85mm and weighs 13.40g.On the front of the socket is asymmetrical cast-and-grooved decoration, perhaps representing a scene although it is not possible to determine exactly what it is. The reverse is probably almost intact - the remains of two iron rivets are apparent to the reverse (which is plain and undecorated) close to the worn edge. The socket is 2.3mm high internally. The socket end narrows to 27.43mm wide, at which point it is decorated with two transverse grooves and pierced with a (now worn through) hole for the missing pin. To either end of this, extending from the underside and c.2mm thick, are the two incomplete (with worn breaks) arms of the openwork frame.Ward Perkins states that these types of decorative strap end represent 'the final elaboration of the 13th-14th century belt-chape. Soon after 1400 a new form of narrow sword belt came into use; and civilian belts with pendant tags went temporarily out of fashion'. He also states that 'these large chapes, often with an elaborate leaf-terminal, belong to the period c. 1390-1410, when they are found on a number of brasses, both civil and military.'
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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