MOUNT

An almost complete enamelled and gilded copper-alloy medieval heraldic mount. Length: 65.5mm; width: 55.2mm; mass: 32.1g. Thickness: 1.6mm-2.7mm. The mount is shield shaped in plan, with a slightly convex top and convex sides which converge to the base. Each corner has a small concave notch, probably the remains of attachments for the mount. When viewed from above, the mount has a concavo-convex cross-section. The mount 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. The cross-crosslet in the middle base is the largest on the mount. The other two cross-crosslets in the base are the same size, and larger than the cross-crosslets above the fess. The outer arms of the crosslet terminals are sub-triangular, sub-lozenge, and sub-rectangular in shape, and the side arms are angled rather than being at 90 degrees. The enamelled field is largely complete, but it has a slightly pitted surface, and there are small areas where the enamel has been lost. The gilding is incomplete on the border (bordure), the horizontal band (fess) and the charges. There are some grooves across the gilding, particularly within the centre of the fess. The reverse of the mount has a dark brown surface which some uneven green patches and further red areas visible. There is a slight recess below the central point of the reverse, but the reverse otherwise has a regular surface. The mount is slightly bent backwards on one portion of the right edge, below the fess. This looks to de impact damage. The breaks on the ?mounts in the corners do not appear to be recent. Commenting on the blazon (gules a fess between six cross crosslets or) Steven Ashley of Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service references A. Wagner, 'Historic Heraldry of Great Britain, pp. 57 - 8 and Plate XI (pers. comm. 4/11/08). Probably BEAUCHAMP, Earls of Warwick etc. Two large mounts are included in "Medieval Armorial Horse Furniture in Norfolk" (Ashley, 2002, p16, numbers 145 (fragment) and 146 (complete)). Number 145 has a concave notch at the base, similar to the mount recorded here. 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 Griffiths, "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", Griffiths (2004, p62) states from perhaps the second half of the 13th century, heraldic 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. It is likely that the pendant described in this record can be dated to mid-13th to the 15th century (G. Egan, PAS Finds Adviser, pers.comm.). I am grateful to Erica Darch (PAS FLO), Steven Ashley and Geoff Egan for their input to this record.