MEDIEVAL VESSEL

1270

A heavy bronze casting of quasi-cylindical form. This object, in the form of an animal's head, was made as one of a pair to fit on the ends of a rod forming the drop-handle of a vessel or box. It is 18mm long and oval in section, being 11mm diameter in the shorter (vertical) axis and 14mm diameter in the longer (horizontal). It is pierced longitudinally by a hole which tapers from 6mm gauge to 3mm. The 'front' end of the mount or fitting represents an animal's head: the oval drum is cut away in the upper part, over a length of 5mm from the end, so as to represent the tapering snout and eye-ridges of the creature. The brow-ridge is further represented by a deep lateral groove running over the crest of the mount about 1.5mm behind the point where the cutaway begins, thus forming a ridge. Within the concave surface left where the metal is scooped away to shape the snout, the eyes are shown in upended lentoid form one either side of the snout, by deeply incised grooves formed by a succession of punched or struck cuts of the engraving tool. Below the snout on either side, two deep notches forming a V represent gaping jaws and open towards the point on the flat end where the piercing emerges at 3mm gauge. Stylistically the form of the head suggests a 14th century date for this casket handle finial.A comparable example was found at Brent Eleigh, Suffolk, SMR no. BTE 006. A complete handle bearing such terminals has been found at Combeinteignhead (Read 1988, no. 523) and a near-complete one has been excavated from a context of 1270-1350 in London (Egan 1998, no. 487).