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An almost complete copper-alloy medieval mount. The mount is shield shaped, with three straight sides and a convex side at the bottom. No clear means of attachment survive on the reverse although it may perhaps have been soldered to something. The mount measures 64.83 mm long, 49.85 mm wide, 2.35 mm thick and weighs 31.4 grams. It is slightly bent so that it appears convex when viewed from the side. A small section is missing from the lower right hand side of the mount.

A heraldic device is recognisable on the mount through moulded elements and through traces of red enamel and very fine traces of gilding. Where the enamel and gilding has deteriorated the mount has a dark brown pitted surface. The reverse also has a predominantly dark brown pitted surface.

Although largely missing enough enamel and gilding survives in order to be able to describe the device. It has a red (gules) enamelled field, with a gilded (or) border (bordure) and a gilded band across the shield (fess), above and below which are two sets of three gilded cross-crosslet charges. The three cross-crosslets above the fess are in the dexter chief, middle chief and sinister chief locations. These are all the same size. The three cross-crosslets below the fess are in the dexter base, middle base and sinister base locations. These are also of approximately the same size.

The heraldic blazon for the mount is gules a fess between six cross crosslets or. This heraldic device is associated with the Beauchamp family, the Earls of Warwick (A. Wagner 1972, 'Historic Heraldry of Great Britain, pp. 57 - 8 and Plate XI).

Two large mounts are included in 'Medieval Armorial Horse Furniture in Norfolk' (Ashley, 2002, p16, numbers 145 (fragment) and 146 (complete)). Ashley suggests that the complete mount (number 146), which has a rivet hole in the base of the shield, may once have been fixed to the saddle of a horse in a similar manner to that shown in a mural of St. George, c.1450, in St Gregory's Church, Norwich. He adds that shields of this size could equally well have been part of some other object, perhaps even a tomb or monument (citing Griffitths, 'Shield Shaped Mounts', 1989, 1-2). Ashley also comments that large shield-shaped mounts are also occasionally shown on monuments as being attached to male and female attire and to the camail of knights (citing, Armstrong, 'A note on four armorial pendants in the academy's collection', 1912, p. 192).

In, 'The Medieval Horse and its Equipment', Clark (1995, p 62) states that from perhaps the second half of the 13th century, heraldric designs appear on pendants decorating horse-harnesses, with coats of arms depicted with coloured enamels, silvering, and gilding. There was a huge increase in heraldry in this period, perhaps associated with the Welsh and Scottish Wars of Edward I (1272-1307) (ibid.). By the end of the 14th century, pendants were in decline with fashions changing to decorative leather or fabric trappings (Geoff Egan cited from pers. comm. associated with PAS record WMID-1F4E67). It is likely that this mount can thereore be dated to the mid-13th to the end of the 14th century.

• Griffiths, N, 1989. Shield-Shaped Mounts : Finds Research Group 700-1700 Datasheet 12, pp1-2.
• Clark, J, 1995. The Medieval Horse and its Equipment : Medieval Finds from Excavations in London.
• Ashley, S., 2002. Medieval armorial horse furniture in Norfolk Dereham : East Anglian Archaeology 101, pp16.
• Sir Anthony Wagner, 1972. Historic Heraldry of Britain London : Phillimore, pppages 57-8, plate XI.

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Created: Friday 10th February 2012
Updated: Friday 10th February 2012