Large Medieval Lead Round Seal Matrix for Edmund son of William

Disc token with bird-and-cross motif to the obverse, hatched reverse. 0.65 grams, 16 mm



Found Billingsgate spoil from the Thames foreshore, London, UK, circa 1984. Property of an Essex collector.

Comprising a single-edged blade, rivets for a scale tang; remains of quillon. 132 grams, 31.5 cm



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

This is a weapon rather than a domestic knife, and is depicted, in contemporary iconography, as a sidearm for soldiers and knights. This type of dagger was in use from the 14th to mid-16th century and finds similarities with Hauswehrs used in Eastern Europe during the 15th-16th centuries A.D.

With central motif of a bird wearing the confessor's stole and holding an aspergillum in one foot, legend to the border '*CONFITEOR TIBI ABSOLVO TE' (I confess to you; I absolve you). 7.59 grams, 29 mm



Acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s. From an East Anglian private collection.

A fox - the penitent - lurks below the confessor, here depicted as a bird (duck?) wearing the confessor’s stole and holding a sprinkler for holy water in one foot. The confessor is about to become the fox’s next meal. This is an important addition to the repertoire of renardine satire – the fox-as-preacher to a congregation of birds (often with a couple already stashed in his hood behind) is a common motif in several media. On seal WILT-41EDE6, for example, he stands (with crozier) preaching to a duck and cockerel, but this is the first example of him coming to confession – with malice aforethought, of course.