File:Book clasp (front) (FindID 627336).jpg

English: Sheet copper alloy book clasp, sub-rectangular in plan, with a trefoil terminal and a flat hook at the opposite end. The upper face is stamped with a sun or flower formed of a circle of pellets and ten triangular rays or petals with internal pellets. Just inside from the hook is a rectangular border of pellets containing scrolls and fleurets and beyond one border, three triangular rays pointing back towards the sun, forming a crown shape and looking like a decorative embroidered cuff or collar. This clasp was one half of a two-part device which hooked into a slot within a similar copper alloy hasp with both parts riveted to a leather strap which held the book together. The two iron rivets are still intact in this clasp with one in the middle of the sun and the other in the middle of the central triangular ray on the opposite end of the clasp. The back of the central rivet still holds a square fragment of the leather strap intact, which has been preserved by the surrounding corrosion product or iron oxide.

Bailey (1992) illustrates similar book clasps on pages 72-3, Nos.9 & 11 which are dated from the 15th to the 17th century.

Margeson (1993) illustrates a book clasp with similar decoration on page 74, Fig.40, No.452, which is dated from c.1550-1700.