BUCKLE

An incomplete cast copper alloy oval buckle frame with composite rigid plate frame (length: 67mm; width of oval buckle: 30.4mm; thickness: 6mm; weight: 10.88g). The oval frame has a small or point extended from the outer edge at the front. There is a slight indentation to one side of the upper face of the buckle where the complete cast copper alloy pin may have worn down the surface. Attached to the oval buckle, there is a rectangular platform with a gap and slight constriction to hold the pin. Just beyond the constriction, the pin has small slightly irregular wings to form a cross-shaped pin. The off-set forked spacers or bars taper off to a point at either side, to originally leave a gap for where the plate pins would have been (now missing with the plates to either side). The forked spacers/ bars at square-sectioned. There is no decoration on the artefact. Overall, the buckle is slightly worn, but in a fair condition with the patina particularly surviving on the oval buckle as a dark green colour.

Similar examples are illustrated in Egan & Pritchard’s ‘Dress Accessories: Medieval Finds from Excavations in London’, 1991, pages 78-82, ref nos 322-330. They all date to the 14th/ 15th century.