STRAP END

An incomplete cast copper-alloy composite strap end of Medieval date. One plate survives intact, as does the lower half of the separately cast copper-alloy spacer and the back plate, the remainder of the object now missing due to old breaks. The front plate is flat, rectangular in form and tapers slightly towards the base. It is decorated on its front face with an incised rocker decoration comprising a border that contains two large cross saltires that fill the face. In each angle of each cross are single short vertical incised lines. At the base there is a projecting terminal knop that is trefoil shaped in form and has a central circular rivet hole on the plate above it. This contains a separately cast copper-alloy rivet with flattened round heads that holds the front plate to the back plate and central spacer, all of which are of equal size/width, the back plate and spacer terminating in old breaks. At the attachment end of the front plate is a single central circular rivet hole. The entire object measures 51.81mm in length, 13.69mm in width, 1.82mm in thickness at terminal, and weighs 4.12g.

This is an incomplete composite strap end of Medieval date. It finds parallels in examples noted from London (e.g. Egan and Pritchard, 1991: nos. 606, 703) and is of probable 14th century AD date.