MEDIEVAL AMPULLA

1350

An incomplete cast lead pilgrim ampulla of Medieval date (c. 1350-c. 1500). The ampulla is incomplete. The suspension loops are missing (only the stubs have survived) and the mouth has ragged breaks.The neck is relatively long and flares outwards and upwards from the body towards the mouth. Close to the surviving part of the mouth, at the top of the neck, are a number of indentations which may have been created when there was an attempt to crimp the neck in order to conserve the holy water. The body is roughly circular in plan and has a maximum width of 30.0mm. Where the neck joins the body the ampulla has a minimum width of 20.2mm. Both faces of the body are decorated in low relief. The obverse face has radiating lines forming a four-petalled flower motif. Each petal has a central longitudinal rib. The reverse face is decorated with a heart which is cross-hatched within. It is possible that there is a further design above the heart. However, due to corrosion, it is difficult to be certain. A casting seam extends throughout the length of the edges.Each face of the body and also one face of the neck (the side with the heart) is concave and this appears to be the result of a deliberate attempt to flatten the ampulla.The ampulla has traces of a buff patina and also has patches of lead corrosion products on both faces. A similar ampulla, with a flower on one side and heart on the other is illustrated by Spencer (1990, 91, ref: 186) but not discussed.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. Until the early fourteenth century, ampullae took various forms, were frequently inscribed and usually bore representations of the cult-figure or relic that they were intended to commemorate......Ampullae could be comfortably kept on the person or easily hung up in the home, or suspended , for the benefit of livestock, in the stable or cow shed or on the beehive. Ampullae were often donated to the neighbourhood, to be hung in the parish church. Almost as a matter of course, churches throughout thirteenth-century England secured possession of Canterbury ampullae containing what was perhaps the most famous of all elixirs, the water of St Thomas, tinged with the martyr's miracle-working blood’ (Spencer, B. 1990, 57-58).