BUCKLE

A corroded and incomplete copper-alloy single-looped medieval Limoges-style buckle, consisting of a cast frame and sheet plate. The frame is oval with a narrowed offset bar; the pin is missing. It has an expanded and angled outer edge which has grooved decoration in the form of an elongated S-shapes with angled terminals. The sheet plate has been folded around the frame. It is recessed at the frame end to accommodate the frame and has a central pin slot. The plate has two rivet holes at the attachment end; these survive only on the upper sheet with the end of the lower sheet bent and incomplete due to an old, ragged break.

The buckle plate is decorated with a moulded wyvern that fills a recessed field within a border. The beast stands left with head looking back over the shoulder. The tail curves round, following the edge of the field, terminating just before the neck below the head. In the recess of the curving tail is a trefoil protrusion emerging from the tail with delineated fleurs. The artefact has an overall red-brown colour consistent with gilding although no traces of gilt are obvious. This is mostly overlaid by off-white and light-green corrosion product. The recesses of both frame and plate were probably originally enamelled.

Similar decoration can be found on NMS-1F0824, and many other buckle plates recorded on the PAS database depict wyverns.