File:Strapend (back) (FindID 419267).jpg

English: Incomplete gilt cast copper alloy 'lyre-shaped' belt chape with openwork frame and integral hollow strap sleeve or box plate. The plate's outer face has the letter 'N', consisting of one triangular shape parallel to one hourglass shape, or waisted 'I', defined by one triangular area of hatching and two crescent-shaped areas of hatching, either side of the letter. The plate has two iron rivets still intact about 4 mm in from the outer edge, which would have held the leather strap in place. The back of the plate has an open section where it has corroded away to reveal more corrosion beneath mixed with organic material which may contain the remains of the leather strap. Above the plate there are two ogival sections of openwork with voluted vine-like stems terminating in trefoils which extend into two arcs and culminate in a large trefoil (or three grapes) at the centre of the piece, beyond which is a circular aperture leading to a tri-lobed terminal of vine leaves. There is no evidence of a pin within the openwork frame, so this appears to be an elaborate belt chape rather than a buckle, but also compares well to lyre-shaped buckles of the period, such as those below. "Soon after 1400, a new form of narrow sword belt came into use and civilian belts with pendent tags went temporarily out of fashion." (Ward Perkins, 1993, p.268)

Ward Perkins (1993) illustrates a similar belt chape with scrolled openwork and a large leaf terminal in his London Museum Medieval Catalogue 1940 on page 270, Fig.85, No.1, which is dated from c.1390-1410.

Mills (1999) illustrates a similar complete lyre-shaped chape with a leaf terminal on page 20, No.NM.28, which is dated from c.1390-1420.

Read (1988) illustrates a similar box-plate with the letter 'N' on it, on page 61, No.266, which is dated from c.1390-1420.

Egan (2002) illustrates a fragment of a buckle with a similar pattern of trefoils on stems on the openwork section of the frame, above the box-plate, on page 104, Fig.66, No.479, which is dated from c.1400-1450.

Griffiths, Philpott and Egan (2007) illustrate a lyre-shaped buckle, missing its pin, on page 103, Plate 17, No.765, which is referred to as marking "the apogee of elaboration of late-Medieval mass-produced buckles" (p.102).