Rights Holder: Suffolk County Council
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Unique ID: SF8937
Object type certainty: Certain
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status: Published
Anthropomorphic bracket from a copper-alloy chafing dish of Lewis's Type F. It is made out of a flat piece of copper-alloy plate 3 mm thick, with one end in the shape of a two-dimensional profile human head. There is engraved decoration on either face, consisting of a nose, large mouth with thick lips, a large eye, lines showing creases in the cheek and nose, the edge of the hair and two lines for the chin. The effect is of a man's large fat face with a small nose and big eye. This occupies about a third of the bracket. The central part is curved and tapers slightly; it would have extended out from the wall of the chafing dish. There is a hole 2 mm in diameter close to the further end of the curving part; this would have held a hinge bar on which the swivelling dish support was hinged. The final element is narrower and also slightly curving, and would have been joined on to the wall of the chafing dish. Lewis (1973) illustrates two examples of the type, from Lubeck and Liege. They seem to have been made in Germany, Denmark and the Low Countries from 1575 onwards, and although going out of fashion at the end of the 17th century were still in use in poorer households in the middle of the 18th. This type of chafing dish is a rare find in England.
Class:
chafing dish
Sub class: Lewis type F
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1575
Date to: Circa AD 1750
Quantity: 1
Length: 73 mm
Width: 20 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight: 24.81 g
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 1st February 2002
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Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis, J.M. | 1973 | Some types of metal chafing-dish |