SWORD BELT

A complete Post-Medieval copper-alloy sword belt fitting with suspension loops, dating to AD 1500 - 1600.

The strap mount is a flat piece of copper alloy, now slightly bent, it is broadly rectangular in plan with trefoil ends. The outer edge of the mount has two opposing rounded lugs with a central rivet hole. The plate is then waisted, after which the upper and lower edges flare and contract along the length with three complete suspension loops on the lower edge. The loops project downwards at 90 degrees from the bottom edge of the mount. A single rivet hole survives located centrally above the central suspension loop, this is filled with some iron corrosion. The front face of the strap mount is decorated with a foliate design in relief, with a flower surrounding the central rivet hole and a leaf design extending to the outer edges. The reverse of the mount is undecorated.

Length: 67.78 mm
Width: 29.82 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight: 15.24 g

There are parallels recorded on the database, one discovered in Shropshire (HESH-EBC0A1) depicts a very similar stylised leaf decoration. Another, (ref. WILT-5F9183) and also in illustrated in Geake (2001, fig. 17). Geake suggests such fittings 'proliferate in the 16th and 17th centuries' (Geake 2001, 35). Their design and decoration are relatively standardised". Read (2001, page 43 ref 373) illustrates a similar example with three suspension loops which he suggests as a sword belt fitting. Read suggests his example dates to the 16^thcentury. 

Read, B, (2001)Metal artefacts of antiquity: a catalogue of small finds from specific areas of the United KingdomLangport, Portcullis Publishing.