BOOK FITTING

A copper alloy book fitting; a book clasp hook-piece of early post-Medieval date, about AD 1450 - 1600. The front plate has a flared and scalloped open end, and a double transverse ridge, extending slightly beyond the edges, at the hooked end. A blunt, backward curved hook extends from the centre of the transverse ridges. There are also three holes decorating the flared end, arranged in a triangle with two nearer the flared end. The whole plate is covered with longitudinal incised lines, which divide into two panels of herringbone patter at the flared end.

The backplate mirrors the shape of the front plate but does not extend beyond the transverse ridges towards the hook. The two sheets of the clasp are held together by three circular, copper alloy rivets; two small rivets at the flared end and a single, larger rivet at the other end. All three rivets remain in place. The clasp has a dark green patina suviving in places, and where it is missing the metal is dark brown. It is 34.5mm long, 16.8mm wide and 3.9mm thick. It weighs 2.98gm.

Well-dated examples from excavated contexts come from London (Egan 2005, nos. 592-3, contexts of late 15th and 16th century), Norwich (Margeson 1993, nos. 452-5, with a dated late 16th-century parallel) and Winchester (Biddle 1990, nos. 2324-6, contexts of 15th or 16th century onwards). It seems likely that their manufacture should be dated to the 15th or 16th centuries (Geake and Webley, PASt Explorers Finds Recording Guide; Book Clasps). Book clasps of this type, attributed to the 17th century, are also illustrated in Crummy, N., 1983, Colchester Archaeological report 5: The Post Roman Small Finds from Excavations in Colchester, 1971 - 85, page 68. Other examples can also be found on the database: compare for example records LANCUM-8741C0, BH-8234B3 and HAMP-6F03B7.