MEDIEVAL PURSE

1250

Medieval copper alloy arched purse hanger (pendent mount) with circa half of a bar mount surviving and attached to one projecting arm. It is broken across its central lobe. The purse hanger is 50.5mm in length, the bar mount 12mm (although complete it would have been c.20mm). The entire object weighs 4.4g.The hanger comprises three arches with a tear-drop shaped feather moulding between the outside arches and the centre arch. Decoration is to one side only. To the opposite side of the outside arches extends a horizontal arm with a single moulded rib projecting below flanking the edge, presumably to hold the bar mount in place. The arches are faceted and a shallow triangle in section, with a flat reverse.The bar mount has a central lobe deocrated with cross hatched grooves.Egan and Pritchard date this type of purse hanger to the 13th century, based on mid-13th century French sculpture. However the closest example in Egan and Pritchard 1991, no.1198, was found in a context dating to the first half of the 15th century.