WAKE - MEDIEVAL English Horse Harness Pendant. 13th/14th Century.

Rare and intriguing English medieval horse harness pendant. 13th/14th Century.



ENGLISH MEDIEVAL HORSE HARNESS PENDANTS

FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION.

Mainly 13th and 14th Century.

Coats of arms on copper alloy, with gold, silver and enamel depending on the colours of the arms - they depicted the allegiance of the rider. However, a small proportion were used for decorative purposes only to show status.

Pendants are found in a variety of shapes, usually attached to the harness by means of a separate hinged mount, which might be a horizontal bar with a downward projecting suspension loop, or sometimes a cruciform design. They were often attached to the peytrel - a strap girdling the front of the horse and sometimes also on the horse's forehead, suspended from the upper bridle strap.

These pendants were at the peak of their use in the 13th and 14th century. The fashion faded away when arms became less simple and quartering was introduced.

Most families have been traced and many of them came over with William the Conqueror.



WAKE

ARMS: (Or) two bar and in chief two roundels

C. 1200 - 1400

Found Harwich 1999

Possibly connected to Hereward the Wake, Legendary leader of a resistance to William

the Conqueror in eastern England.

Lincolnshire family of note since C12th. Family includes Joan the Fair Maid of Kent who

eventually became the mother of the future Richard II.

In C14th Governor of the Channel Islands.