Medieval Lead Pilgrim's Holy Water Ampulla

Including quatrefoil and octagonal types with heraldic motifs: lion passant and three lions passant gardant. 24 grams total, 33-36 mm



Found Gloucestershire, UK. Acquired from the early 1980s. From the private collection of a late Gloucestershire, UK, gentleman; thence by descent.

Flat-section hoop with legend to obverse 'X POVERT PA'. 6.36 grams, 30 mm



Ex Graham Slater collection, Cambridge, 1980s-1990s.

This popular ring-brooch legend is the beginning of a proverb [Whiting P334: poverty parts company] found in 15th century manuscripts, which the brooches may well antedate – see, for example, PAS database SF-84C91E, i.e. the perhaps cynical observation that if one loses one’s money, one loses one’s friends.

Trilobate in plan with openwork triangle between three roundels with hatched fields, the upper two surmounted by crosses, depicting scenes from Christ's life: the crucifixion, resurrection and Christ at the Column in relief. 3.39 grams, 31 mm



Ex European collection, 1990s. Ex Cambridgeshire, UK, collection.

In 1383 AD, after fire in the town of Bad Wilsnack, Germany) three consecrated communion hosts were found undamaged in the ruins of the church. According to the legend, they were sprinkled with the Holy Blood of Christ, which made Bad Wilsnack a famous pilgrimage site. The resultant pilgrim badges were distinctive in shape with three circles arranged in a triangle and painted in red, referring to this miracle. Although the miracle was doubted by Reformation period scholars like John Hus, the final blow came in 1552, when the miraculous communion hosts were publicly burned.