File:Harness pendant, lozenge, Bek arms? (FindID 205890).jpg

English: A copper alloy lozenge shaped horse harness pendant. The suspension loop is missing and there is some corrosion in this area. The arms on the piece are Gules, a cross moline [colour unknown]. There is a large proportion of the red enamel field remaining, but any gilding or tinning originally on the cross is now missing. Measurements: 30 mm x 33 mm (including remnants of suspension loop).

The arms on this piece are likely to be those of the Bek family: Gules, a cross moline argent. The Bek family were of Eresby in Lincolnshire, with further lands in Derbyshire. Arguably their best-known member was Antony Bek, who became bishop of Durham in 1283. He served Edward I as ambassador for many years, amassing enormous wealth. Late in his life, he was appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem.

However, Antony Bek was a younger son, and the arms on this piece are not his (he used Gules, a cross moline ermine), but those of his natal family. There were several knights of the family active in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: Walter de Bek, Antony's father; John de Bek, his elder brother (died 1304), who inherited his family's lands; and John's son Walter, who inherited in his turn. Walter was the last of the male line, and the estates passed to his three sisters; Antony's lands were left to his niece Margaret, one of Walter's three sisters.

Lozenges were used (instead of shields) to display the arms of unmarried women, and this lozenge may have adorned the horse of one of the Bek sisters or their retinue, or perhaps another female member of the family. Two examples of the Bek arms can also be seen in York Minster.

Antony Bek's personal mark, the cross moline, is found opening the legend on Edward I pennies struck at the Durham Ecclesiastical Mint in the period 1284-89 (see Binski and Alexander 1987, 314-5, illustrated with no. 272).