MEDIEVAL BUCKLE

1350

A virtually complete cast copper-alloy medieval 'locking buckle'. The frame is rectangular in plan, with rounded corners. The outer edge is wide (c. 5.6mm), flat and rabbeted (or notched) to accept and secure the U-shaped arm attached to the pin bar. It also features a central triangular indentation in which the pin still rests. In profile the sides of the frame are expanded (Th.: 5.7mm) to receive the off-centred pin bar; from this point they travel down to the outer edge in a curvilinear fashion.As implied, the pin bar survives in situ with the 'pin-chape' surviving around it in its entirety. The latter is formed of an integrally cast rectangular element, pierced all the way through for the pin bar, with protruding and tapering triangular pin. The rectangular element is of a thickness with the sides around the pin bar perforations. It has suffered a slight loss at one end adjacent to the frame on the lower surface. The arm is an asymmetrical 'U' in shape with a twisted globular knop at the longer end. The arm is circular in cross-section and is thinned to go through the frame and accommodate the pin chape.This artefact can be dated to the 14th century (Geake 2001, 28). Complete 'locking buckles' can be found illustrated in Ward Perkins (1940, opp. 273; Plate LXXVII), with a reconstruction drawing in Egan 2005 (37-38; refs. 116, 117). The object has a dark-grey coating over a red-brown metal.