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Description: | A complete circular hinged copper-alloy box containing a set of nested cup weights dating from the Post Medieval period, probably from the 16th or 17th century.The box is circular with sloping sides, so it is trapezoidal in section. Three sub-rectangular struts are situated on the upper side of the lid - two arranged in a V shape emerging from one side, and a single one in between the V from the other side. The single strut is riveted with two rivets whilst the double V-shaped struts each have a single rivet. The hinge for the lid is at the point where the double struts meet and descend the side of the box. It interacts with a trefoil mount attached to the side of the box with two copper alloy rivets and with a double lug projecting upwards to hinge with the single lug descending form the V shaped struts. The axis bar is copper alloy.The single strut also terminates in a double lug and is hinged with a catchpiece which is rather like a book clasp; it has a rounded plate with a peghole through it, a knopped terminal and a collar before the hinge. This copper alloy axis bar also survives. The hole in the plate would have fitted over a peg projecting for the side of the box. This has broken off level with the side of the box, and the hinge no longer moves.The top of the box is decorated with circumferential incised lines; a group of six near the edge, and six more widely spaced near the centre. The side of the box is similarly decorated with four lines near the top and four near the base. The inside of the lid has a flange which rests on the outside of a similar lip projecting upwards form the sides of the box. There are no visible maker's marks.The metal has a pale brassy colour on the inside, dark grey on the outside, with patchy of bright green corrosion. The box is 44.8mm long (including the struts), 34.1mm wide (the diameter of the container) and 24.4mm high. It has a mass of 55.16g, which is 1.94oz and it would have acted as a 2oz weight.Contained inside the box are three cup weights.The first is 14.9mm high, 29.7mm diameter and has a mass of 30.72g which is 1.08 ounces and would have been used as a 1oz weight. It is decorated with a pair of circumferential insiced lines half way up the side on both the outside and the inside. There are file marks on the external base. The inside base is stamped with a fleur verification mark. The walls of the weight are 2.9mm thick and the top is decorated with seven very closely spaced turned circumferential incised lines.The other two weights are fused together. They are of matching design and the smallest one also has the fleur mark visible. They are 10.8mm high, 25mm diameter and have a combined mass of 23g (0.8ounces) and would have been half ounce and quarter ounces weights. The set may have been completed with a quarter ounce flat weight which would have fitted inside the smallest cup, but if there is one, it is now missing.This style of lid, with reinforcing struts, is characteristic of a post-medieval date and perhaps manufacture in the major centre of Nuremberg. Precise dating is difficult as cup weights were used from the 15th to 19th centuries (Biggs, 1995, Bullion Weights, page 16), but a 16th or 17th century date is most likely.For other examples see LIN-59B338, WMID-2A2084,YORYM-0B5244 and LVPL-1D4A24.
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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