BOOK FITTING

An incomplete medieval to post medieval copper alloy book fitting, dating circa AD 1400 - 1600. This is a catch-plate or anchor-plate of Howsam type A.6.2. The similarity in form makes it difficult to distinguish between the two, unless they survive still connected to the rest of the book clasp. A catch-plate of this type would have been used to secure a hooked fitting of  type A.3 – A.5, compared with anchor-plates which were used hinged into a fastening of type A.5. An example of a fastening of type A.5.1 hinged together with an anchor-plate of type A.6.2 can be seen in Howsam (2016, 35, Fig. 2 - 4).

The object is made of thin metal sheet, which was cut to form a rectangular plate with one pointed end. Two projecting lugs holding an axial bar are located at the rectangular end, to form a catch or a hinge bar. The central section of the plate has a decorative hole set within an incised border of concentric circles, all flanked by two rivet holes with the copper-alloy rivets still in situ. One of the rivets is still attached to a fragment of copper-alloy plate on the reverse.

Referring to fastenings of type A.5 (always used in combination with type A.6 catch-plate / anchor-plates), Howsam (2016, 65) notes: “ As is the case with several other types of book fittings, there is limited archaeological information that can be used to date this form of book fitting. Two examples, one from St Andrew’s Priory (333) (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2939) and one from Battle Abbey (13) (Hare 1985, 42-3), were both excavated from deposits associated with the Dissolution and dismantling of the monasteries in the sixteenth century (Figure 2-15). On the basis of the archaeological and manuscript evidence, it is likely that fixtures of type A.5 were used during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.”

Dimensions: 22.07mm in length, 9.82mm in width, 1.1mm thick, weight 0.8g

Reference: Howsam, C.L. 2016. Book Fastenings and Furnishings: An archaeology of late Medieval books. Unpublished PhD Thesis.