Medieval gilt bronze terminal or mount. The mount is three-d...

Hammer

£48

Medieval gilt bronze terminal or mount. The mount is three-dimensional and in the form of a quatrefoil set on a vertical shank, with a quatrefoil base and zoomorphic feet. The vertical shank is circular in cross-section and tapers gently from 6.94mm diameter to 5.72mm diameter from base to terminal. Each of the four side arms (length circa 20mm) are of similar diameter and taper slighty to the terminal. Each terminal is solid and bulbous (circa 9.45mm diameter), with a small collar before. The base has four feet (32.38mm in lenth, 6.60mm wide, 5.02mm thick) each of which is D-shaped in cross-section with an animal-headed terminal. The terminal has a moulded transverse line marking the forehead, and a moulded line down the centre of the face. To either side is a small blue glass pellet depicting the eyes. The reverse is flat. There is a rivet hole through each of the feet just behind the forehead ridge; one of the holes still retains a broken copper alloy rivet. The obejct has been gilded apart from the base, and the gilding is noticably more worn on the underside of two of the arms suggesting that the object acted as a handle of some sort. This object is difficult to parallel. It is similar to some Limoges chasse finials and particularly some Limoges conical pyx-lid terminals, though neither category has a flat enough top for the present item to fit on. It looks most likely to be from some kind of elaborate (?Limoges) lid, which would probably mean late C12th-C13th.

52mm x 52mm, 50g.

Recorded on the PAS database as LIN-714C24.

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/207130