MEDIEVAL CANDLESTICK

1400

Cast copper alloy candlestick socket length 39mm, width 25mm, thickness 22mm, weight 17.58g. The object has a hollow hexagonal cross-section, with an inside circular aperture 19mm in diameter. The sides gently taper inwards, there is a ridged collar 5mm below the opening. On two sides there are two apertures, a circular one at the top 6mm in diameter and a rectangular one bellow. There is a crack running down the length of one side which has distorted the circumference. The base has been truncated. This socket would have been part of a candlestick, with the tapered end attached to a ring which fitted onto the base of the candlestick, like an example from London illustrated in the London Museum Medieval Catalogue 1940, reprinted in 1993, p.178, Fig. 55, No.2, which is dated to the 15th century. This complete candlestick is similar to Flemish and German examples from the same period (Ward Perkins, 1993, 182), and there is also one depicted in the painting by Carlo Crevelli called the ‘Annunciation’ (c.1485) in the National Gallery (Ward Perkins, 1993, 180).