POST MEDIEVAL STRAP FITTING

1550

A complete cast copper alloy ‘S’-shaped belt hook or strap fitting of Post-Medieval, sixteenth or seventeenth century date (AD 1550 - AD 1700). Length: 32.3mm; width: 14.0mm and 3.7mm thick. Weight: 4.83g.The identical terminals are in the form of a snake’s, or possibly, a swan’s head. The central part of the fitting, the shared gorged neck of the two heads, has moulded decoration. This decoration is in the form of two circumferential transverse ribs either side of each, on both faces, are moulded decoration consisting of feathers or scales. The maximum width of the neck, close to the central moulding, is 6.5mm. The piece is in a stable condition but the patina is lost and the surface colour of the metal is dark brown. Similar examples are illustrated in Gordon Bailey’s ‘Detector Finds 3’, 1997, pages 20-1. Bailey states that the ‘snake form belt hooks’ became popular during the 16th century, where an example can be seen in the portrait of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, c. 1575. The fastener was part of a sword belt, and was used in place of the normal buckle. It is likely that these strap fittings would have been tinned or gilded. The snake belt hook would seem to have fallen from fashion by the 17th century, and remained so until the end of the 18th century, when it was favoured by the military (Bailey, page 20).This belt hook design also continued through to the twentieth century.