- DIMENSIONS:
- Height
(overall) 286 mm; Diameter (body) 145 mm
- DESCRIPTION:
- Heavy
copper-alloy lantern with inset crystals. The cast cylindrical body
is pierced by a round-headed shutter with, on the left, two three-element
hinges with bent wire pivots and, on the right, a central catch of the
same design as the hinges, of which the central element (on the door)
is broken. The lower edge of the body is rebated on the inside for a
base-plate which, together with the internal fittings, is missing. A
segmented octofoil dome forms the top of the lantern, terminating in
a flanged collar. An iron pin, passed through this collar from the inside,
is threaded successively with a loose bronze ferrule with broken expansions
to either side, a large lathe-turned crystal, and, through a transverse
hole at the end, a bent square-shanked iron nail with a rough quatrefoil
head. Each segment of the top is perforated with a single circular hole
near the apex and with multiple holes towards the bottom; on four segments
there are five circular holes in a cruciform setting; on one segment
a vertical setting of three holes is flanked on either side by a pair
of further holes; three segments each have four pear-shaped holes arranged
in a cross, with a circular hole between each of the arms. On the body
of the lantern are three raised bands with relief decoration: the uppermost
takes the form of a continuous frieze of palmettes; the central band
displays individual embossed floreate motifs; and on the bottom is a
running foliate scroll with trefoil and cinquefoil leaves, each differing
slightly from its neighbors. The upper and lower bands are each interrupted
by four hog-backed oval crystals set in pierced mounts, while in the
central band the embossed flower motifs alternate with eight hemispheral
crystals, similarly set; there are settings for four conical crystals
below the upper band, matched by four more above the lower band, each
of these groups now lacking one crystal. The shutter is surrounded by
a raised moulding, grooved at the margins.
- COMMENTARY:
- The description
of 1685 gives no hint that this lantern is the most important European
object in the entire collection: no doubt its origins were by then quite
unknown. By the early nineteenth century, at least, it had acquired
a spurious association with King Alfred. There is good reason to believe
that a German origin can now be claimed for it. The alloy composition
of the lantern is consistent with an origin in north Germany, probably
in the Rheinland, and with a date of manufacture in the twelfth century.
- Museum Id. No:
- 1685 B no. 416: Laternae Duae, quarum una ex ferro [erased and replaced
by aere] christallis hic illic oculato conflata; altera ex cornu
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