MEDIEVAL MOUNT

1200

Two joining pieces of decorated sheet copper alloy. They have different patinas, one being a rougher and slightly more purplish colour, and the other being a polished green. The decoration has a hand-made quality which prompts its recording, but the date is uncertain; the patina on the slightly purplish piece might suggest a fairly modern date. The fragments join to form a triangular shape with incurved edges. The decoration the two complete edges consists of a border of quatrefoil stamps, each foil made up of a trefoil, within repoussé ridged borders. There are small fixing holes just inside the outer border. Within the border is a central roundel made up of a ring of repoussé pellets around a scratched motif which is now hard to decipher; perhaps a black-letter initial. The two surviving corners are filled with a curvy repoussé leaf outlined with hand engraving; at the junction of the two original edges the leaf is on a background of small punched or engraved lines. The other corner has a similar textured background to one side of the leaf, but to the other side, along the broken edge, are lines of either rouletting or extremely small rocker-arm engraving. The whole thing is flimsy and thin and is probably a decorative mount; the surviving dimensions are 96 x 43 mm.