TOY 597295

Description: An incomplete lead Post Medieval (1600-1700) toy with a break to one end. It measures 39.65mm long, 21.65mm wide and 2.95mm thick, and weighs 5.32g. The object consists of a circular area, flat and undecorated to the reverse with a raised edge to the front 2.95mm tall (the area betweem c.1.9mm thick). At the centre is a ring-and-dot in relief with four equidistant leaf-like motifs radiating from it to the edges. These are also in relief, oval in shape and decorated with a succession of raised V-shaped mouldings. Between each pair is a narrower leaf-like motif with a raised transverse (multiple) ridge decoration. From one side extends a now-parallelogram shaped projection, with a recent-ish break at its long edge. This area also has raised outwards-slanting sides and decoration in relief consisting of lines radiating from the end of one of the leaf-like motifs in the circular area (that closest to the parallelogram projection). It is flat and undecorated to the reverse. It measures 19.18x2.44mm at the break. From the opposite edge of the circular area is an inverted U-shaped projection with a damaged knop at the end, 12.59mm long, 7.41mm wide (the knop being 4.45mm wide) and 2.66mm thick. It is decorated to both faces in relief, the reverse with a prominent longitudinal ridge and narrower horizontal bands and the front with sloping edges with transverse ridges either side of three longitudinal areas of the same width with raised ridges. At the centre these are horizontal and the two outer areas diagonal. The knop is too worn to discern the decoration. The style of the object suggests it is a 17th/ 18th century plaything - although not enough survives to be able to tell what it was originally part of. Kate Sumnall (London FLO) suggests it could possibly be a fragment of toy furniture like a buffet/dresser with toy plates arranged on it, and dating to the 17th century (pers. comm. January 2014).

Date: 1600 - 1700

Object type: TOY

Last import: August 15, 2017