MEDIEVAL AMPULLA

1200

A cast lead alloy ampullag dating to the Medieval period, (AD 1100-1500). The bowl is semi-circular and the incomplete neck is rectangular in cross-section. The handles which would have connected the neck of the object to the body have broken away leaving a small scar on each side. One surface of the ampulla is decorated with a W. The object has a dusty mid-white patina.Ampulla bearing a crowned W have been tentatively associated with the cult of Our Lady of Walsingham. These occur in a large number and are widely distributed which indicate a shrine of major importance such as Walsingham. The crown is seen as the emblem of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven. It is also possible that the W has a more general meaning as double V (Virgo Virginium) and M for Maria when inverted, (Spencer, B, 1990, p60).Brian Spencer, formerly Senior Keeper at the Museum of London, who made a life-time study of ampullae, has written: 'Ampullae or miniature phials were an important kind of souvenir. Generally flask-shaped, but with a narrow, flattish section, they were designed to contain a dose of the thaumaturgic water that was dispensed to pilgrims at many shrines and holy wells. Ampullae were made of tin or lead or tin-lead alloy and were provided with a pair of handles or loops so that they could be suspended from a cord or chain around the wearer's neck. Coming into use in the last quarter of the twelfth century, they were, in England, almost the only kind of pilgrim souvenir to be had during the thirteenth century. They were nevertheless available at a number of shrines, and thanks to returning pilgrims or to local entrepreneurs, probably featured as secondary relics in virtually every thirteenth-century English parish church.