MEDIEVAL DAGGER

1300

Medieval dagger pommel in the form of two outwardly facing busts. The lower aperture is ovoid and the upper sub-rectangular. The contours of both busts’ facial features are moulded, but their eyes are represented by punched dots with mouth, nasal apertures and hair delineated by short V-sectioned grooves, each containing a line of rocker-arm engraving. The lower aperture passes through a similarly decorated collar. No close parallel has been found, but the busts are reminiscent of a type found on vessels such as those from Eye (illustrated in Suffolk Archaeology 41, (2006), fig.53 A), Banham (HER 31306), Carrow Abbey, Norwich (HER 296) and Wiveton (HER 25893). A 14th-century date is likely.Height 29.5mm. Width 18.5mm. Lower aperture 15 x 13.5mm, upper 8.5 x 7mm. Weight 50.88g.