Highs & lows 2.

[Doug]

Back story to this find.

A friend of mine inherited a hill farm (sheep) up on Exmoor from his late uncle.

Although Exmoor is pretty wild there is a lot of history up there from the Mesolithic (8000-4000 BC) Neolithic, BA, Roman to small villages and hamlets by the end of the 13th century.

Finds are few although I have found several hammered coins over the years it is always a pleasure to visit him and wander around his fields and fishing lake.

In May 2018 searching the boundary between a sunken road which leads up to the village church and his fieldI I found this horse pendent.

Deep down I knew it was not 'of age', this was confirmed by the FLO?

[Steve_JT]

the pattern is very much Celtic Cross knot, surly that is of age ?

I like it, that's nice

Regards Steve

[Blackadder43]

They were hardy people for sure to be living on Exmoor
Amazing you have found so many items there, and hammered coins too

Lovely place for solitude though, but you need your common sense wits about you

That pendant is really nice....it does appear to have the look of some age

[Leeloo]

That’s nice, I like that, my first thoughts were of a 18-19th century horse fly terret or pendant but that pattern is of a much earlier time, what date did the FLO give out of interest ?

LL

[Saki]

Don't know about the age, but that really is a thing of beauty

[Doug]

I had serious doubts that it was old although I could not at the time prove to myself it was quite modern.

I had to see the FlO to hand/pick up some finds so I backed up the photographs I had sent her previously and took the pendent with me.

More or less she said straight away it was quite modern 19th/20th century by looking at the suspension loop and the clean lines of the pendent.

Paraphrasing her words." Suspension loop and body is one piece and the suspension hole is 'drilled' perfectly in the centre also all the designs of the arms are all perfectly lined up and all the same dimensions."

When I returned the pendent to landowner he did say in the past there had been horses stabled in the field so that more or less tied in with the find.

[figgis]

Again, another great find and the age is almost immaterial.

The Celtic knot design has been used for ages (one of my hip flasks has it*) and it's a real eye-catcher

*On reflection, that sounds bad, don't it?

[HolzHammer]

I’d take that over most of things I find any day - it’s beautiful!

[Ladybird66]

Lovely find Doug. Old and unusual. It does indeed look like an antique ‘swinger’ (a bit like me)

You might be interested in this site about Horse Brasses. There are contact details in there somewhere and I’m sure the writers would love to see a pic or two of your find and would probably give you book & verse about it’s make and age.


https://collectorshorsebrasses.weebly.c ... ngers.html

p.s. didn’t see one with a Celtic design on their site so I’m sure they’ll be interested

[Saffron]

I fully understand why its not "old", but it is still a cracking find.

My grandfather was a carter, and like all carters he took an immense pride in the horses and harness.

FYI: This is the site I use for horse brasses
http://www.nationalhorsebrasssociety.or ... fault.aspx

Evan