MEDIEVAL BUCKLE

1200

A narrow rectangular buckle plate, wrought in copper alloy. The buckle plate survives in one piece. The buckle plate comprised one single plate of copper alloy, which has been bent and shaped to form the front and back plate. The bent in the plate has been shaped to allow the strap bar to be held in place. The front plate in complete but the back plate has been damaged at the open end. At the open end of the plate there are two rivets still in situ. These rivets are made of copper alloy and would have joined the two plates together had the back plate not been damaged. Neither the buckle nor the pin survives. The front plate has been engraved with the medieval style engraving ‘rocker-arm’, this can be seen along the two longest edges of the plate and on the open end of the plate. The metal is a mid greenish-brown, with a polished patina. This type of buckle plate dates from the 13th century to 15th century. Similar buckles can be seen in Egan and Pritchard, 1991, pp110-1, Fig 72, No. 499-514.