Details

LOT 0360

Medieval Knight's Heraldic Horse Harness Pendant with Royal Hunting Scene

13TH CENTURY A.D.

1 1/2 in. (11.36 grams, 38 mm).

Quatrefoil-type with integral loop and broad lobes; niello surface with reserved image of a bowman (right) with arrow nocked and one arm bent, advancing towards a stag (left) with tined antlers, an arrow having pierced it through the neck; scene divided by a median vertical tree with three radiating boughs.

Provenance

Found by Robert Wiseman in Longdon, Worcestershire, UK, circa 2015, next to a trackway leading to St John the Baptist church that was built by the military order of the Knights Hospitaller in the 12th century.

Recorded with Mark Lodwick of the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK.

Published

Accompanied by a copy of the hard-backed book: Eldersfield, "Knights & Pilgrims", where this pendant is published on p.18 under the section titled "The Sport of Kings".

Literature

See BON, F.X. & PERES, A. Heraldic Harness Pendants in Revue française d’héraldique et de sigillographie 2025-1, février 2025 for discussion of type; Saunders, P.& E. (eds) Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum Medieval Catalogue Part 1, Salisbury, 1991, p.21, 25.

Footnotes

Described by Phil Parkes, the conservator at the National Museum of Wales, as the best of its type that he had ever seen or worked on to clean and preserve, in 30 years.