TAP KEY 459879

Description: A cast copper-alloy broadly cruciform openwork object: possibly the turn-piece from a post-medieval barrel tap. This 'handle' has a large central cut out in the form of a cross with lobed arms (broadly pointed oval). Around the cross is a moulded border on both faces. The zone between this border and the edge is decorated with pairs of moulded transverse lines. At the end of the elongated arm of the cross the object thickens and develops a square cross-section with rounded corners. It is assumed that, although otherwise complete, the object has broken at this terminal and would have continued, potentially into an insert for a barrel tap. This attribution and dating are by comparison with a broadly cruciform barrel turn-piece with similar cut out published in 'The Searcher' magazine (No. 248, April 2006, page 24).

Date: 1650 - 1750

Object type: TAP KEY

Last import: August 15, 2017