Medieval Bronze Seal Vesica-Shaped Seal Matrix for Henry Hendrick

Vellum manuscript page with illuminated capital in blue, green, coral and liquid gold and dense blackletter text with decorative bands in blue, white and liquid gold; Latin prayer beginning 'Domine ihu xpe' (Lord Jesus Christ) ... ut lancea caritatis tue penetres cor meum (so that the spear of your love may penetrate my heart); below, 18th century printed image of the ruins of Crowland Abbey; both in a glazed wooden frame with a burgundy reveal. 1.25 kg, 45 x 31 cm



From a Blackheath, London, UK, deceased estate. Property of a Suffolk, UK, gentleman.

Formed with a slightly curved profile and with suspension loops; buff-coloured. 298 grams, 26.5 cm



Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection.

Apart from badges as souvenirs of visits to various saints’ shrines, pilgrims might also bear away with them various noise-making items such as horns, whistles, rattles and bells. The miniature horn-shaped lead whistles known from London and Salisbury bear various inscriptions including bla me [blow me] and ave maria. In the contemporary ‘morality’ play Mankind (c.1465-70) of East Anglian provenance, the character Nought says I kan pype in a Walsyngham wystyll, which suggests that such souvenir whistles were available from the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham too, and that already such ‘tourist’ trinkets were regarded as a proverbial type of worthlessness, ‘not worth a whistle’, indeed.

With central sleeping lion motif and dense field of intersecting pointed arches with tracery and illegible letters in the spandrels around the perimeter; tapering shank and trefoil loop above. 13.1 grams, 25 mm



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