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LOT 1745
Medieval Bronze 'You Have a Loyal/Faithful Love' Seal Matrix Head
CIRCA 1300-1400 A.D.
1 5/8 in. (5.28 grams, 17 mm).
Circular die with a central four-leaved plant paris quadrifolia, surrounded by a French inscription reading: '*LEL AMI AVET' for 'you have a loyal (or faithful) love'. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFound Fairstead, Braintree, Essex, UK.
Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.ESS-F0F3AA.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
See Jones, M., The Secret Middle Ages, Cheltenham, 2025, 24-5, 313-4, for further discussion.
FootnotesDr Malcolm Jones notes: 'This common device and associated inscription need to be understood in the context of the imagery and conventions of amour courtois/Courtly Love. Certainly, ami literally means ‘friend’, but in this context it means ‘love, lover, beloved’ – so the legend means “you have a loyal/faithful love”. Furthermore this quatrefoil is no ordinary stylised flower. In medieval English the four-leaved plant paris quadrifolia was known as the truelove. Two 15th-century English wills include the bequest of rings in the shape of a truelove: an anulum argenti operatum cum uno trewlove (silver ring fashioned with a truelove) in 1407, and unum anulum argenti et deauratum cum uno trew lofe (a silver and silver-gilt ring with a truelove) in 1464.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 1745
Medieval Bronze 'You Have a Loyal/Faithful Love' Seal Matrix Head
Sold for (Inc. bp): £221
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Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
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