Museum Objects
A Romanesque buckle plate from near Beverley in East Yorkshire
A few months ago the Museum page featured an example of a 12th century Romanesque buckle plate found near Aberford, near Leeds in West Yorkshire. The piece is now in the Leeds Museums and Galleries archaeological collections ( LEEDM.D.2002.1). In the text associated with the buckle plate mention was made of another example in much better condition found near Beverley in East Yorkshire. I am grateful to the owner, Mr Graham Hales, for permission to reproduce the image shown here.
It shows a gilt copper alloy buckle. In the centre is a seated figure with a standing figure on either side apparently holding out something above the seated figure's head. It may be meant to represent Christ seated between two angels. This is another example, albeit a very well preserved one, of a distinctive group of Romanesque buckles published by John Cherry (see Antiquaries Journal 67, 1987, 367-8). There Cherry cited examples from Lincoln, Bury St Edmunds, the Wirral, Hampshire and Nottinghamshire. The example from near Beverley adds another findspot to the distribution map of these fascinating and attractive buckles. The Beverley buckle was found by the present owner with a metal-detector and was first reported to the Hull and East Riding Museum identification service over seven years ago.
Bryan Sitch,
Curator of Archaeology,
Leeds Museums and Galleries.