Large Medieval Gilt Heraldic Horse Harness Pendant

A whittle tanged knife with iron blade and single cutting edge, bronze handle with tapering ovoid cross-section, with shallow vertical ribbing and decorative horizontal dashes. 56.9 grams, 15.5 cm long



Acquired 1960s-1990s. Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.

A silver-gilt fede ring composed of a flat-section hoop with expanded bottom section and quatrefoil bezel; the hoop engraved with alternating vertical and horizontal hatched panels with expanded central section crudely engraved with clasped hands; bezel engraved with a cross embellished with cross-hatching in each quarter of the field. 2.69 grams, 24.69 mm overall, 22.78 mm internal diameter (approximate size British X, USA 11 1/2, Europe 26.23, Japan 25)



Found near Brookland, Kent, UK, 2007. Property of a Kent gentleman. Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no. KENT-299A33. Accompanied by a copy of two letters from the British Museum and report for HM Coroner for Treasure case T493. Accompanied by a valuation letter and another from Peter D Spencer. Accompanied by a provisional treasure valuation for the Treasure Valuation Committee.

The quatrefoil bezel is in the form of a truelove (paris quadrifolia) as the plant was called in Middle English. Two fifteenth-century wills include the bequest of rings in the shape of a truelove: in 1407 an anulum argenti operatum cum uno trewlove [silver ring fashioned with a truelove] and in 1464, unum anulum argenti et deauratum cum uno trew lofe [a silver and silver-gilt ring with a truelove] On seals the device is most often accompanied by the legend LEL AMI AVET [you have a true love] confirming its identification with faithful love, and on a matrix recently unearthed [PAS database SWYOR-B7EDA9] the characteristic four veined leaves are surrounded by the posy, IS SVI FLVRE/ DE FINN AMVVR [I am the flower of perfect love].

A silver chessman-type seal matrix with pierced lug finial above a pierced trefoil on a stepped bulb; central heraldic heater shield within a florid wreath; heraldic design of transverse hatched bars and reserved canton with a cinquefoil, blazoned 'argent two bars on a canton gules a cinquefoil', arms of the Preston family; blackletter legend to the border '* Sigillum : iohannis : prestone' (seal of John [of] Preston). 26.6 grams, 36 mm



The Matrix Collection, formed by David Morris since the late 1980s. Found in Bilton-in-Ainsty, West Yorkshire, UK, before 2 July 1997. with Sotheby's, 2 July 1997, lot 4. Matrix Collection catalogue no.0227. Many of the seals within the collection were published in a book titled 'The Matrix Collection', by David Morris in 2012. Accompanied by a copy of the illustrated collection notes. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11652-198730.