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Description: | Part of an elaborate medieval copper alloy book clasp, comprising an openwork oval plate formed by two confronted wyverns (slightly hollowed on reverse), both with a dog-like head gripping the end of a narrowed bar for a strap. The wyverns both have wings molded on their backs, and the legs intertwined with pelleted (possible) tails around a central hole which would have fitted over a pin set into the wooden book cover. A stylised animal-head with a perforation through the snout forms a terminal loop, through which a cord would have been threaded. Length 49mm. Width 25mm. Thickness of body 3.5mm, of terminal head 5.5mm. Weight 14.45g.Cf. an even more elaborate book-clasp of related form and date, also with interlaced wyverns, from Quidenham, Norfolk (HER 35413), illustrated in Ashley forthcoming 'Anglo-Norman Elite Objects from Castle and Countryside', fig.5.25. For later examples of similar book clasps see Egan (1998) Medieval Household, fig.214.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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