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HARNESS PENDANT
Unique ID: DUR-651663
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
Cast copper alloy quatrefoil medieval harness pendant It has four semi-circular lobes with a triangular point in between each lobe. It is decorated on the front face with enamel. In the centre is a dragon passant left in red (gules). The dragon is inside a square, on each side of this a lis extends out. The field is blue (azure). The pendant has a broken attachment loop at the top which is set perpendicular. Irene Szymanski has seen a photograph of this pendant and comments that this design is fairly common. If you go to IHS-11E882; its associated finds will link to other examples. The original design was a gold lion passant guardant on a red ground surrounded by four gold fleurs de lys on a blue ground. The lion is taken from the arms of England, and the fleurs de lys from France; the whole thing is thought to be a badge used by the English during the Hundred Years' War. You can get them with the colours reversed, i.e., the lion on a blue ground and the fleurs de lys on red, but this isn't significant - it's the same thing, but perhaps badly made.
Notes:
Arms: England and France (allusive)
Class: heraldic
Chronology
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1200
Date to: Circa AD 1400
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 42.7 mm
Width: 31.7 mm
Thickness: 2.58 mm
Weight: 11.8 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Wednesday 1st July 2009
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
Spatial metadata
Region: North East (European Region)County or Unitary authority: County Durham (Unitary Authority)
To be known as: Durham Area
Spatial coordinates
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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