Typical bronze vessel finds — a foot and a large body fragment found in close proximity to one another but probably not from the same cauldron. |
Actual size = 57.5 x 39.5mm |
Typical bronze vessel finds — a foot and a large body fragment found in close proximity to one another but probably not from the same cauldron. |
Actual size = 57.5 x 39.5mm |
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/856910 |
Widworthy |
This British example (from Widworthy) is identical in form and construction to many continental examples, and especially those made in Italy. However, this particular form was not the only one in use. Other types, smaller and more compact, have been seen in my image trawling...
And so the search continues!
Walters Art Museum Italian example |
Everything but the seashells there were the ruined works of mankind. And that included my swanky West-End boots... |
One of the key rules of 'eyes-only' searching is that you must investigate anything remotely interesting...
Well, I was at Queenhithe Dock one day, and was chasing the tideline down as the water fell....
When,...
I saw in the mud and shingle, what looked like a unusually large iron washer!
And of course, it was remotely interesting.
And so I flipped it over...
Mother! This was no washer!
It was pretty sizeable and quite heavy too. The metals were in an excellent state of preservation but unfortunately was crushed and mangled.
Of Late-Medieval edging into early Post-Medieval date, no doubt.
Henry VIII...
However, when I'd given it a tideline wash and examined the piece more closely I could see that it was work of the highest quality imaginable, was made by a very skilled craftsman indeed and would have cost a pretty penny to its long deceased owner.
The face of the piece is formed from a single sheet of extremely thin brass. So very thin is it that I cannot accurately measure — but it is around the 0.2 mm mark and certainly no thicker. The backplate is a comparatively thick piece of slightly dished iron. 2mm thick perhaps. The techniques used in its creation were repoussé, chasing and embossing. Repoussé is the hammering of metal up from behind — chasing and embossing hammering down from the front.
Expertly done the results can be astonishing.
The design is not a Tudor rose, though it has some similarities to one of those. It reminds me of church windows of the earlier Medieval years.
Let's call it a quatrefoil.
PAS record Fingringhoe |
Unfortunately, all I found at the time of discovery was the photo of it above which contained some useful information but not nearly enough. I could could not trace more.
Jousters to the max! 1546 date. That's the ballpark... |
It did look to be, perhaps, an item of armour.
I went on a long, long hunt for an answer, trawling through entire manuals, manuscripts and pictorial accounts of knights and jousters and their armour. Nothing similar was seen in many moons but then I spied something that threw me sideways...
What are those little spikes on the horse's brows?
And... Should I be looking at horse armour too?
After the three sessions, the total thus far is 22 examples. Almost 30% of this tray and 55 to go... |
All of the very smallest items located by the XP 150 in six hours. Nothing here is especially small in my terms. |
These are all of the very smallest items located by the Laser B1 in just three hours. Some of the fragments are truly minuscule and yet the machine gave clear signals for almost every single one |
Hair ornaments? Silver-plated copper-alloy. 59mm x 44mm. |
The rings on my left pinky. These are rings are small. |
The two examples at the bottom were found elsewhere. |