BRIDLE BIT

A copper alloy mount of Medieval date. It is formed of two curved upright arms, D-shaped in cross-section and which are linked at their closest point by an integrally cast oval cross bar with flat back and front and curved sides. The uprights are both incomplete with on complete and one broken end. The complete ends are near the oval cross bar and end in slightly flattened circular terminals. The incomplete ends are both concave, as though they have broken across air holes or joints. The longer upright starts to curve more strongly away from the cross bar to almost be at 90 degrees to it just before the break. There are traces of gilding on the sides.

The piece is 29.4mm by 32.5mm, 4.9mm thick and weighs 12.70g.

One end of a larger B-shaped mount, several near complete examples of very similar form are recorded on the database: HESH-8D5A24, KENT-36F8E3, NARC-125826, BH-CA4C12, DUR-D408EC, SF-B290D4, SF-263043, NMS-81F3E6 and NMS-01A696.

These mounts may have been used to decorate a horse harness (bridle bit, as suggested by Webley, 2020), furniture or a casket. An example from Baynard's Castle, London (discussed in detail by Wilmott 1982) has an iron cross bar and was suggested to be a brooch but the robustness of the examples makes this suggestion unlikely, HESH-8D5A24 also has a cross bar in copper alloy which is not sprung like a brooch pin. Some are decorated with shields similar to other horse furniture of the period (Griffiths (1989) figs 5 and 6 who suggests a 13th to 14th century date) and others have more elaborate terminals and cross bars, e.g. Goodall (2012, 139; ref. 209), SWYOR-7B58E3, SF-B290D4 and PAS-8CBF8B. Examples are also known in iron, again a material more common with horse harness fittings: Goodall (2011, 225; fig. 9.30).