Details

LOT 1801

Gold Engraved Touchpiece

17TH CENTURY A.D. OR EARLIER

3/4 in. (5.53 grams, 17 mm).

Barrel-shaped with two impressed flat faces, one with a later engraving of a guilloche border and looped tendrils framing reserved initials 'PO P[R]' above and lower 'NU [.]M'; possibly a touchpiece or love token. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired since the 1970s.
From the private collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.

Accompanied by a copy of the article 'A Roman or Anglo-Saxon Fertility Amulet?' published in Treasure Hunting Magazine.

Published

Harfellet, Geoffrey, A Roman or Anglo-Saxon Fertility Amulet?, Treasure Hunting Magazine, April 2018, p.15.

Footnotes

The design is reserved and very faint; the outer guilloche is quite convincing but the details of the design are hard to determine, and may always have been quite indistinct. The impression is of a 17th century love token with the initials of the couple. The finder's article implies an Anglo-Saxon date, probably on the strength of the guilloche which was often use on early Saxon metalwork - but it is a long-lived motif and not specific to that one period.