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LOT 1416
Medieval Iron Knife with Bronze Pommel
CIRCA 1500 A.D.
8 in. (49 grams, 20.2 cm).
Comprising a single cutting edge, scale tang and bifacial pommel with incised motifs.
ProvenanceAcquired 1960s-1990s.
Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.
Cf. Marquardt, K., Eight Centuries of European Knives, Forks and Spoons: an Art Collection, Europe, 1997, pp.28-32, for type.
FootnotesThe medieval knives could have the tang attached in two ways depending on the the form of the tang. Whittle-tang knives have a tapered tang which is inserted into or through the handle. Scale-tang knives have wider and flatter tangs onto which the plates comprising the handle are attached with metal rivets.
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Medieval 'Thames' Pewter Pilgrim's Badge with Virgin & Child within Crescent Moon
Circa 14th-15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £65
Mary and the infant Christ on a crescent moon, stylised bird below, pellet detailing; pin stump to reverse 2.11 grams, 25 mm
Found Billingsgate spoil from the Thames foreshore, London, UK, circa 1984. Property of an Essex collector. -
Medieval Ceramic Thumb Based Jug
16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £104
Salt-glazed jug with fusiform body, broad mouth, loop handle to the shoulder, domed base with impressed-thumb patterning. 539 grams, 19 cm high
Ex M.Cummings, UK, 1990s. -
Medieval Terracotta Pilgrim's Horn
Circa 15th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £312
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.
