351 (20)

324

Dress Accessońes

Cockerel

1605 SWA81 3285 (2112) 12 fig 212 Incomplete; modelled in the round; h 32mm+; tin (MLC); hollow bird’s body with open rear end (head missing); cross hatching on the breast and wings to represent feathers, with the proximal ends of the wings defined by a beaded band and dots within the cross hatching here; the legs each have three toes (one leg has surplus metal to the sides); a third vertical projec-tion in the centre at the rear lacks the modelling of the legs and appears to be a support for standing the object in the manner of a tripod; there is a suspension ring in the middle of the back; an oval area on the underside, between the feet and the projection, is cross hatched; this crude pendant was slush-cast in a three-part mould.

A similar, but smaller and morę naturalistically de-tailed cockerel pendant, h 33mm, 1 33mm (MoL acc. no. 86. 202/44) is complete, and includes a scroll held in the bird’s beak, with a legend on both sides: VOAOl/l/l/l/E/:KOC-REL (mainly Lombardie letters) - ? ‘look on me/cockerel’. Cf Roach-Smith 1854, 154 no. 709 (British Museum collection acc. no. 56, 7-1, 2170, fig 212 this volume), and Mitchiner 1986, 127 no. 322 (the legend here is taken to be ‘look on me Cockney’). The latter example has an incomplete tripartite lead/tin chain link (cf ibid, 217 no. 794 for a complete link of this type) attached to the suspension loop. The legends meaning may be the equivalent of today’s ‘wotcher cock’, which has the same underlying image (Brian Spencer, pers. comm.).

The reason for the apparent provision for standing no. 1605 upright is not known. The open end might originally have been filled with some non-metallic sub-stance (perhaps feathers, to give the bird a morę strikingly realistic taił).

For another hollow pendant of this generał charac-ter, see Ward-Perkins 1940, 264 & pl LXXIV no. 65. See also souvenir buckie pendant no. 573, listed under Buckles.

POSSIBLE PLAIN PENDANTS

non-figurative elements, perhaps from composite jewellery

Tin

1606    BWB83 2055 (367) 9 fig 212 16x28mm; tin (MLC); crude; an approximately isos-celes triangle with rounded comers; fiat in section; cast, and pierced near top; damaged at one of the lower comers.

Possibly not an item of dress, though tin would be an unusual metal to use for a weight or other purely functional item of this generał character.

Copperalloy

1607    SWA81 1679 (2112) 12 fig 212

1 44mm; pendant and chain; brass (AML); irregular rhomboid of sheet metal, pierced and suspended from S-shaped wire link.