Скачать или смотреть Elgin Museum Collection Highlight: Medieval hinged book clasp

Morag MacDonald, local historian and friend of Elgin Museum, talks about her favourite object from the Museum's collection – a Medieval hinged book clasp (ELGNM: 2014.23.1). This book clasp, or strap-end, is a two-piece hinged object, made of sheet metal with a flexible terminal in zoomorphic style. The terminal is cast metal and has a central perforation with a second hole representing the mouth of the creature. It was originally identified as a dress-fitting, but is thought instead to be a clasp to attach to the leather straps traditionally used to close books. Several examples like this object have been found in London, and dated to the late 14th to early 15th Centuries AD. Clasps like this can be seen on girdle books of this period, where the central perforation would lock into a metal stud on the book cover itself. With this example, the size would suggest a small girdle book which were fashionable accessories for lay women in this period. The object was found by metal detecting at Barmuckity, Moray, and acquired by Elgin Museum through the Treasure Trove process.
This film was made possible thanks to the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and was produced as part of Elgin Museum's Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology 2017 programme of events.