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Details
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]
Provenance
Found 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.
Literature
See Jones, M., The Secret Middle Ages, Cheltenham, 2025, 24-5, 313-4, for further discussion.
Footnotes
Dr 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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LOT 1745
Medieval Bronze 'You Have a Loyal/Faithful Love' Seal Matrix Head
Sold for (Inc. bp): £221
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