MEDIEVAL BUCKLE

1350

A cast copper-alloy double-looped buckle of medieval date with plate attached. It is formed of a pair of oval loops such that the sides incurve. The outer edges of the buckle are straight, protruding rectangles. There upper surfaces are decorated with zigzags formed by rockerarm engraving. The pin bar is obscured by the damaged sheet plate looped around it. At its centre are the corroded remains of the iron wire pin characteristic of such buckles. The plate is formed of a single sub-rectangular sheet folded over in itself and riveted together at the attachment end by a copper-alloy rivet. The lower surface of the object is flat while the upper surface is bevelled both internally and externally on the sides of the loops. The frame now has a dull dark-grey colour largely covered in off-white corrosion product; the plate is greener. It measures 14.9 by 12.0mm; the sheet is 12.8 by c. 6.7mm. Buckles of similar size and form been found in 14th-century contexts in London with plates and iron pins (see Egan and Pritchard 1991, 88; e.g. ref. 384).