STIRRUP

A complete copper alloy stirrup. The stirrup is bent and distorted. Originally a triangular stirrup with a rectangular loop at the apex for the strap attachment, The apex has a pointed terminal, concave at the rear and convex at the front,  with a circular aperture (4.9 mm diameter), possibly for the attachment of a decorative mount. At the lower edge of the rectangular loop the frame is thickened and D-shaped in cross section. It is recessed from the sides at the rear. The sides of the stirrup have a shallow D-shaped cross section and are angled outwards to the base. The corners at the base are rounded and expanded from the sides, flaring into a thickened oval tread-plate.  Projecting downwards at a right angle from the rear of the tread-plate is a necked trefoil or lis-shaped element. The surfaces of the stirrup are corroded, but some areas retain traces of gilding.
Date: Medieval - c. 1150 - 1300
Dimensions: 154.3 mm x 84.7 mm x 28.9 mm Sides thickness 2.1 mm  Apex loop internal dimensions- 16.4 mm x 13.8 mm Footplate width - 31.9 mm Footplate thickness -  6.2 mm
Weight: 75.52 g

Rob Webley has kindly commented:

As you know, complete stirrups are very rare, but the form seems fine to me for something around the 13th century; in a very broad sense, compare those in Clark (2004 [1995], 72-73; figs 82, 83). It lacks the applied embellishment of the 11th-century series and the cover plates of the 14th-century and later examples (see the online FRG). The element at the middle of the tread-plate looks to me more like a decorative lis-shaped projection, presumably in its original down curved position still. Again, this looks very 13th century, if not late 12th century; and the gilding is also consistent with lots of other c. late 12th - (first half of the) 13th-century metalwork. Going against that slightly is the perforation at the apex, which might suggest a reinforcing stud (as in Griffiths 1989, 3; no. 4); if there was a stud, and it was heraldic, it would rather be more likely late 13th or 14th century. But.... the overall feel of it aligns best with metalwork of the late 12th to late 13th century.