Belt with cast Bronze Buckle and Terminal

In the 14th Century belt buckles had a wide range of styles and metals they were made from. Many of the wealthier nobles used thier buckles to show wealth and status as much as function. They were anything from hand forged iron worn by nobles and peasants alike to very ornate made from bronze, silver, coper and gold worn by nobles.

belt buckle with a Griffin at the NY MET 17.191.226
iron hand forged buckle
bronze terminal dated 13-14 century found in a nobleman grave in Kigyospuszta,Hungry
bronze belt buckle dated 13-14 century found in a nobleman grave in Kigyospuszta, Hungry
copper belt buckle dated 12 century found on a constuction site in Perth, Scotland

My belt is blue due to the fact that my son is a man at arms for a squire. I do not currently possess the knowledge or talent to cast the belt buckle or terminals so I purchased then.

leather belt blank
back view of buckle and terminal with burs
front view of buckle and terminal with burs

Since I have never done this before the most stressful part of this was trying not to break the posts while hammering them down over the burs. To accomplish this task I used a pice of wood with leather nailed to it (so no damage came to the piece), a hammer , linesmen plyers, a rivet setting tool.

tools used on belt

I started by pushing the belt blank onto the posts. Next I placed a bur on each post. Finally I snipped some of the excess metal and carefully used the rivet setter to gently fold the rest of the post down over the bur to secure the buckle and terminal to the leather belt. I am very happy with the result and relieved that none of the posts broke off.

front of belt
back of belt
up close view of finished work

Bibliography

BBC News March 6,2008 story Smith, Catherine reporting Archeologist

John Grey Centre, Library Museum Archive Archaeology, Haddington, East Lothian,Scotland

Museum of Fine Arts Hungary

Museum of Fine Arts NY, USA gift from J. Pierpont Morgan 1917

Ricci,Seymour de. Catalog of Collection of Gallo-Roman Antiquities Belonging to J. Pierpont Morgan. Parris: C. Berger, 1911. no 226 pg 35. XII.

Kunh, Herbert, “Die Germanische Greifenchnallen der volkerwanderungezeit” Ipek12(1938). no. 7, p. 80, pl. 34 n. 28.

Egan,G. and Pritchard,F. Dress Accessories c1150-1450 (medieval finds from excavations in London)1991

Margeson,S., Norwich Households: Medieval and Post-Medieval Finds from Norwich Survey Excavations 1971-1978. 1993

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5 Responses to Belt with cast Bronze Buckle and Terminal

  1. Ibrahim al-Rashid  says:

    Ibrahim again – nicely done.

  2. Nika Dmitrieva doch' Zvezdina says:

    That’s a really lovely buckle and strap end set. Where did you find it?

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