CANDLE HOLDER

Adjustable or folding medieval copper alloy candleholder, lower part of cast and spiked shank missing. The various elements apart from the spike comprise: firstly a cup or socket of folded and overlapped sheet with engraved decoration of two horizontal lines enclosing short oblique lines around the outside of the rim; secondly a strip folded around a spindle passing through a triple-notched D-shaped projection on the upper end of the spiked element, and riveted to the cup (rivet missing); thirdly a sheet strip which is riveted between the cup and one arm of the folded strip, and would have been used to adjust the cup and folded strip into three positions; lastly a sheet, once curved into a C-shape but now distorted, that is riveted to the cup and held under the angled end of the folded strip. This final element is paralleled by the C-shaped end of the folded strip of an example from Nacton, Suffolk (PAS SF7874). The present example, though somewhat distorted, is narrower at the top. This suggests that it may have functioned as a socket to engage with a tapering vertical object that may have been fixed to a wall. Other decorative details should be noted: a series of moulded low rectangular bosses at the top of the spike; transverse grooves on both outer faces of the folded strip; engraved lines around the edges of the angled end of the folded strip and short oblique lines between them; and engraved lines on the lower part of the cup outlining the same angled end of the strip.

A candleholder from London (Margeson, 146-7, fig. 115) though lacking a C-shaped element is very similar to this example in other respects and of almost identical size. Examples have been recorded in Norfolk at Merton (HER 40117) and Whinburgh (HER 40298). Another closely similar example was found in Hull (Armstrong, P. & Ayers, P. Excavations in High Street & Blackfriargate E Riding Archaeologist 8 (1987), 206, fig. 117 no. 214. Good drawings of pieces from Wiltshire and East Kent can be seen in Read 2001, fig.82. Overall length 76mm. Internal diameter of top of cup 14.5mm. Length from base of D-shaped notched projection to top of cup 65mm. 14^th - 15^th century.