294 (38)

266

Dress Accessońes

Day (see Homsby et al. 1989, 55 no. 21 for a different kind of May-Day brooch).

Birds

1368    BWB83 14 (136) 11 fig 172 27x21mm; cock and hen mating; the małe bird’s comb is missing; the pin and catch on the back are intact; pewter (AML).

Several versions of brooches with this design are known (Mitchiner 1986, 216-17 nos. 787-92, wrongly described as fighting cocks), representing at least three different moulds in addition to the one for the present example; others (again from morę than one mould) have been found in the south Netherlands (Hopstaken 1987, 57 no. 308, and two further exam-ples from Dordrecht and Reimerswaal in the van Beuningen collection).

If this intemationally popular sexual motif had any particular significance, it is now unknown.

1369    BWB83 13 (125) 11 fig 172 Fragment; 51x31mm; bird’s body, with wing addorsed and a collar with bosses around the neck; stylistically less accomplished than the following example (in which the bird faces in the opposite direction).

Cf Spencer 1980, 30 no. 141.

1370    SWA81 1666 (2112) 12 fig 172 Fragment 14x20mm; crowned head of a bird of prey, which also wears a beaded collar around the neck; part of a loop is attached to the edge of the collar.

This fragment is modelled in higher relief than was usual for lead-tin brooches; the back is hollowed from the mould so that less metal would be used.

Cf Mitchiner 1986,197-98 nos. 682-87 and 214 nos. 769-772 for similar, morę complete examples from at least seven moulds (three of which produced a bird facing left and four facing right); Mitchiner’s no. 770 was found in Salisbury; that one and no. 769 retain a scroll with the uncertain black-letter legend ‘be ..ape.. iollye mery’ (?‘be happy, jolly, merry’); cf also ibid 127, nos. 322-24 - birds with the legend ‘cockney look on me’. Nonę of the published examples includes a chain, which is known on other versions (at least ten similar crowned-bird brooches, some on chains, have been found in the Netherlands and are now in the van Beuningen collection - seven from Oud Krabbendijke, and one each from Reimerswaal, Amsterdam and Dordrecht).

Mitchiner’s division into early 15th-century ‘eagle’ badges and later 15th-century ‘hawking’ badges is not supported by any significant differences in the anatomy

of the birds, and both of the suggested categories are represented in late 14th-century to early 15th-century contexts at the Billingsgate and Swan Lane sites. Mitchiner’s claimed ‘stratigraphic evidence’ has not been presented.

1371    SWA81 939 (2102) 12 fig 172 Fragment; 18x 17mm; taił of a cock; a stub on the back may be part of a pin catch.

Cf Mitchiner 1986 (212 nos. 759-60) for similar brooches (the suggestion that the bird is a reference to Cockney Londoners cannot be substantiated). A complete example was found on the Buli Wharf Thames-side site in London; further examples found in London and Salisbury retain traces of red paint (all in private collections).

The large number of different badges depicting various birds of prey is striking, but the under-standing of their significance has advanced very little.

Griffin

1372    SWA81    1665    (2112)    12    fig 173

Incomplete; 25x27mm; griffin with wings open; the hind ąuarters and part of the front foot are missing; part of the pin survives.

A morę complete brooch (fig 173), apparently the mirror-image of the present one, suggests that the griffin was probably passant (Mitchiner 1986, 119 no. 300. There is no strong reason for connecting this common heraldic animal with Edward III, as claimed).

Wild man with pestle

1373    SWA81    2078    (2109)    12    fig 173

Incomplete, 29x33mm; (?)wild man, wearing baggy, cross-hatched hood, grimacing, holding a pestle in both hands, and urinating; only one leg survives; hair on the naked body is depicted by rows of strokes in relief; the pin (which, unusually for brooches in the present category, is aligned horizontally) and its catch survive; relief lines on the back imply a four-part mould if they are all seams, but it is morę likely that they include setting-out guidelines from the cutting of the mould.

Cf a less-complete example from the SUN86 site (acc. no. 939). A complete brooch has been found in Salisbury (fig 173, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum collection - see Spencer forthcoming, where the figurę is taken to be an ape); this one and another example illustrated in Mitchiner (1986, 282 & 288 no. X325), shows that the figurę is standing with legs