HARNESS PENDANT

A worn cast copper alloy enamelled heraldic harness pendant of probable 14th-century (c.1250 - c.1450) date. The pendant is worn and much detail is lost or obscured . The pendant is sub-triangular (shield-shaped) in plan and sub-rectangular in cross-section. The edges of the shield are slightly bevelled and the profile of the pendant is slightly bowed (convex). On the upper edge of the shield is an integral cast suspension loop which is set at 90 degrees to the plain of the pendant. The front face of the pendant had an enamelled design - which is poorly defined due to modern corrosion. The design is impaled (split in half vertically) with two differing sets of devices either from a marriage or carried by children of the marriage. The left half consists of a red mullet / star with 5 points; below which is a horizontal panel of red enamel; below is some form of animal possibly a dragon, griffin or lion facing right but very poorly achieved. The field on which the animal sits is possibly silver now decayed a blackish blue. The top right hand corner has a large rectangle of red enamel with smaller square next to it - top top left panel blank; below possibly a small fleur de lis or animal passant; below which is a panel of red enamel. The reverse face of the pendant is undecorated but is extremely rough and has suffered from laminating corrosion. The harness pendant is a light green colour with broken and abraded patina which covers most surfaces. Where abrasion has occurred due to movement in the ploughsoil a light active green corrosion is present. Similar shield-shaped horse-harness pendants have been dated to the middle of the medieval period specifically the 14th century (see Griffiths: 1986: Horse Harness Pendants. Finds Research Group Data Sheet 5).

The pendant measures 44.1mm in length, 25.7mm width, is 6.3mm thick across loop and 4.1mm thick across pendant. It weighs 10.96 grams.

Laura Burnett - an expert in heraldry and medieval artefacts comments:

The arms are being impaled but I am really unsure what is going on on the right. The left could be Argent a fess an in chief xx mullets gules. Possibly either:

307 Willem de Dodingeselle
Argent a fess and in chief two mullets gules
William de Odingseles, who also appears in Glover's Roll, B142; Walford's Roll, C157; St George's Roll, E313 & Charles' Roll, F51

or

404 Hue de Oddingseles
Argent a fess and in dexter chief a mullet gules
Hugh de Odingseles, who also appears in E616, F485, and Q229.

She comments further:

Impaling means two lots being joined, as for a marriage but can also be bourn by the children of that marriage. This is an old fashioned way of doing it where they literally show the left half of one arms with the right half of the other. The little dividing line down the middle makes it clearer. The arms on the left are normally the husbands. There is quite a lot of geneology on this family but hard to track down the arms of the spouses. It doesn't look like Ela Fitzwalter daughter of the Earl of Salisbury unfortunately as that would be a likely set to impale unless they are really badly done.