267 (36)

239

Mounts

1284    SWA81 acc. no. 2107 (context 2065) ceramic phase 9 fig 152

High-tin lead alloy (MLC); incomplete; crudely cut openwork sheeting roundel; d 23mm; ring around central cinąuefoil, with hole in middle; stamping all over one face has produced corresponding raised dots on the other.

The central hole in this flimsy item may once have held a rivet.

1285    SWA81 3066 (2107) 12 fig 152 Lead-tin (MLC); folded (shape restored in drawing); 15xc.l5mm; central cross with two arms terminating in trilobes, which are joined at both sides by extensions from opposed trefoils stemming from the other two arms.

Cf four similar mounts found at Oude Krabbendijke, now in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (acc. nos. F7234-6 & -8).

1286    BIG82 2753 (3919) unphased fig 152 Lead-tin (MLC); d 27mm; two concentric transversely hatched rings, joined by six arms, each consisting of two dots and terminating in trilobes on the outside of the larger ring.

1287    SWA81 3309 (unstratified) fig 152

Thin lead sheet (AML); cast (Anthony North, pers. comm.); rectangular, 26xl2mm; lion passant, plant motif to side and possibly another below; beaded border.

Presumably glued in place rather than set behind a frame. Perhaps not an item of dress, but from a morę rigid object.

MANUFACTURING EVIDENCE

Copper alloy

Several sites have produced manufacturing evidence, though nonę of this dumped materiał pinpoints the certain location of a workshop. It is hoped that this aspect will be morę fully discussed elsewhere.

1288    BWB83 acc. no. 5177 (context 308) ceramic phase 11 fig 153

Irregularly cut octagon; d 17mm; pierced at edge; crudely stamped with four circles, as if for multifoil motif.

Presumably discarded unfinished.

See also bar-mount no. 1159 fig 134, which appears to have been stamped into shape but not trimmed, and unfinished sexfoils nos. 1004-06 & 1014, & also no. 947.

Iron sheeting

1289    BWB83 2969 (131 area) 11

Domed circle, d 12mm; tin coating; no sign of rivet. Presumably the head for a mount stamped into shape, but discarded without having had a rivet attached.

1290    BC72 4472 (150) 11 fig 153

As preceding item; d 17mm; tin coating; no rivet or hole. The overlap caused by the shaping of the dome shows up clearly.

Offcuts from the manufacture of discs:

1291    BWB83 625 (151) 11 fig 153 Irregular shape; tin coating.

1292    BWB83 3349 (309) 12 fig 153 Strip with linę of eight discs removed.

The last two items represent several fragments of iron sheeting waste found at the BWB83 site, which are tin coated on both sides, and from which circles of various diameters have been cut (cf nos. 1289-90).

The above pieces of sheeting are complemented by large numbers of other pieces of offcut sheet waste from several waterfront sites, though little of this can be associated directly with dress fittings. At the BOY86 site a few 15th- or possibly 16th-century pieces of sheeting were found stamped out into shapes which correspond with mounts found on the site, but lack the relief detail that was presumably added by a second stamping.

Stone mould

One part of a limestone mould for casting various lead/tin domed circular and other mounts was found at TEX88 (acc. no. 1030, from a context probably of late 14th-century datę) - fig 154. (A chalk mould from TL74, acc. no. 1649 - Rhodes 1982B, 89 - is probably not for dress accessories.)

A casting of five lead/tin domed circular mounts retains the complete sprue - fig 153, bottom (found in Canterbury with other late-medieval items, private collection); the mounts constitute only a fifth by weight of the metal cast, so it would have been necessary to recycle four fifths of the total (Dana Goodbum-Brown, pers. comm.). It is not known at present how repre-sentative this item is of production practice of the time.

See Ramsay (in Alexander & Binski 1987, 395-96 no. 450) for a copper-alloy mould of a kind that may have been used to produce some of the thinner omate sheet mounts.