candlestick
- Museum number
- 1878,1101.90
- Description
-
Candlestick; foot; bronze; cast, not gilded; openwork on each side with medallion of Agnus Dei; beneath which is a dragon facing griffin and lion facing coiled serpent; dogs on angles.
- Production date
- 13thC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 76 millimetres
-
Width: 116 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Text from Zarnecki et al, 1984, cat. no.249; see bibliography
'Bronze (81.2 % copper, 8.56 % tin, 9.68 % lead, 0.11 % zinc - analysis by Roger Brownsword), cast, not gilded; three-sided, on claw feet; dogs at the angles biting the feet; each side decorated in openwork with a medallion of the Lamb of God, a dragon facing a griffin, and a lion facing a coiled serpant; round sockets for the shaft.
This was probably one of a pair of small altar candelsticks. It is unusal for a Romanesque candlestick foot in that the animal and foliage decoration is not symetrical. The attributions to an English coppersmith, first proposed by von Falke and Meyer, is supported by the similarity of the animal ornament to English manuscript initials, such as those of Cambridge, St John's College MS A.8, a Canterbury book of c. 1130. The fact that the copper-alloy includes a high percentage of tin and virtually no zinc may also point to an English origin.'
See also:
von Falke, Meyer, 1935, pp. 10, 99 (no. 61), ill. 63
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1984 5 Apr-8 Jul, London, Hayward Gallery, English Romanesque Art 1066- 1200
- Acquisition date
- 1878
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1878,1101.90
