Rights Holder: Roger Thomas
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BOOK FITTING
Unique ID: PUBLIC-C79A79
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
A post medieval copper alloy book clasp, of Howsam type A.3. It weighs 17.9 grams, and is 86.4mm in length and around 2.5mm thick. In plan it tapers from a 23mm wide fishtail flare at one end to a 9mm wide integral hook at the other. At the hooked end there are square 1.5mm projections from either side over a 7mm length.
8mm in from the flared end there is a transverse row of three evenly spaced 2mm diameter perforations, and there is another centrally located 1.5mm perforation 14mm in from the same end. There is some rudimentary longitudinal incised linear decoration to the upper side, but the surface is poorly preserved and this is only sporadically visible due to the corrosion and encrustation. The flared end terminates in an old transverse break, though there does not appear to be more than a few millimetres missing, when compared to more complete examples recorded on the PAS database.
On the underside there is the stub of an integral 4mm diameter rivet, centrally located 24mm in from the hooked end.
Probably dates from the 16th or 17th century. Similar items are recorded in the database as YORYM-B27940 and KENT-F525F0.
Class:
Book clasp
Sub class: Howsam type A.3
Subsequent actions
Current location of find: With finder
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to Landowner
Chronology
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1500
Date to: Circa AD 1700
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 86.7 mm
Thickness: 2.5 mm
Weight: 17.9 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 29th November 2015 - Sunday 29th November 2015
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: East Midlands (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Derbyshire (County)
District: South Derbyshire (District)
To be known as: Catton
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
References cited
| Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Howsam, C.L. | 2016 | Book Fastenings and Furnishings: An archaeology of late Medieval books | Sheffield | Unpulished PhD Thesis | page 32 |
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Timeline of associated dates
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