Medieval Chic in Metal

MASS PRODUCTION

Belts were cut out of leather by a leather worker and then by someone else provided with a buckle and strap end and mounted with metal. Belt mounters bought the mounts in large numbers from specialists, who punched them out of thin copper sheet or cast them from a lead-tin alloy. For casting they used double, so-called ‘lousening’ moulds, that allow for serial production of flat objects.

NAILS

Most common as mounting on belts are nails. Sometimes these are heavy 'hard rock' nails, sometimes circular caps with a thin nail through them. At the back of the belt they are hammered flat, often with a rivet in between. Nails are meant essentially to reinforce the belt, but they can form all kinds of decorative patterns.

NAIL PATTERN

Belts with nail patterns indicate the importance of the preservation of so much medieval leather, particularly in the west of the Netherlands, due to exceptional preservation circumstances caused by a high groundwater level. Without the belt, all that would rest of such a beautiful pattern is a handful of nails.

FACE OF CHRIST

The meaning of not every shape is known, but a small part are religious symbols like crosses, St. James' scallops, 'the true face of Christ' (Vera Icon), the tunic of St. Mary, and the winged dove as representation of the Holy Ghost.

METAL MOUNTS ON BAGS

Bags in various shapes and sizes have often been embellished with metal. This mounting is usually part of a range of decoration of the leather, in which patterns, figures and letters can be cut out and stamped as well. Metal mounts often emphasize the lines and parts of the purse and reinforce seams, flaps and fastenings.

Lap dogs
In medieval households, small dogs were kept for company. These have often been depicted in the lap or hands of portrayed women and men. There, the dogs, often white ones, are wearing colourful collars with bells, stars and other mounts. Narrow collars with bells have been found, but were often interpreted as ‘cat straps’. Of the bells, usually one half is missing.

METAL MOUNTS AS YOUR BODY LANGUAGE

In the Netherlands, belt mounts in the shape of letters are much more common than outside them. It seems that there was relatively much need (and knowledge) here to propagate things through accessories.

AVE MARIA

The mounts contain many letters and letter combinations, with remarkably often the letters A, M and S. Their meaning is not always clear: M for instance can relate to the Virgin Mary, but the Emperor Maximilian or ‘minne’ (love) as well. The combination AM for Ave Maria and IHS as monogram of Christ are general.

SYMBOLS OF LOVE

A beautifully decorated girdle was a suited gift for a lover and the exchange of belts was a fixed part of medieval marriage rituals. For this reason, many belts, especially expensive ones, show symbols for love, like hearts and appliques with the word AMOR. Hearts with two crossing arrows as a sign of being in love and two joined hands as a sign of marriage can be seen on mounts and strap ends too.

MEMENTO MORI

At Dordrecht, this narrow leather strap was excavated with, between two copper-alloy studs, a metal plate with two human heads on it (9 mms wide). The two are shown facing each other; that on the left is a normal face and that on the right a skull. The image refers to the notion of memento mori ('remember that you must die'). Symbols of impermanence such as that on this belt remind the faithful that they should care about their immortal souls.