CANDLESTICK

A cast copper alloy incomplete candlestick in the form of a standing figure playing, a now missing, musical instrument. The figure is wearing a sub-conical shaped hat which comes to a off-centre peak which is the folded backwards. From beneath the hat the hair protrudes which is defined by fine obliquely angled grooves. The facial features of the figure is simplistic with lentoid eyes, a bi-trapezoidal mouth and a high-relief triangular nose. The torso of the figure has a slender waist with a belt. The torso is covered with a simplistic tunic whose only decoration is at the hem, and this consists of vertical notches. The arms are positioned so that it implies the figure originally held a recorder type musical instrument. One hand forms a loop presumably through which the instrument, made from a different material was positioned, and has since been lost. The legs of the figure are simplistic and terminate with a horizontal notch and flattened surfaces. There are no feet. The surface of the figure has traces of a white metal alloy which originally would have given the figure a silvery appearance. Otherwise the surface has a mottled shiny dark brown patina. It measures 99.87mm long, 36.41mm wide from elbow to elbow, 20.61mm thick from the shoulders to the hands, and weighs 118.2g.

Dr. Geoff Egan identified this object as dating to the 15th to early 16th centuries and that originally it would have been part of a larger object, for example an elaborate candlestick. He also commented that it is a continental import as this type of object was not produced in British workshops at that time.

A similar candlestick is found in the V&A Collections; http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89103/candlestick/ which is dated to the early 16th century, and has a very similar style of costume to the recorded example. The V&A example was made in Germany.

Examples of certain candlesticks have a perforation through which a socket could be fixed, but there is no obvious hole or perforation in this example.