MEDIEVAL AMPULLA

1300

Medieval cast lead pilgrim's ampulla, its neck still pinched shut - and supposedly containing holy water. It has a round body and funnel-shaped neck and is in good overall condition - only the two small handles for suspension are missing. While the obverse is decorated with the crowned 'W' for Our Lady of Walsingham, the reverse is decorated with a faded six-petalled flower. Spencer writes: "Like the prototype in Nazareth, the Holy House was associated with a well, the water from which was noted for its miraculous healing properties. There can be little doubt that Walsingham's pilgrims took away ampullae or miniature flasks containing this beneficial liquid... The crown (and more often the crowned W) regularly appears on this sort of ampulla in combination with either the scallop, the letter R or another of some ten recurrent motifs, and it may be intended as the emblem of Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven, or more specifically as the golden crown, the gift of Henry III, worn by the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham..." (Spencer 1980, 16)