File:Medieval figurine (FindID 640738).jpg

English: An incomplete gilded copper-alloy figurine of late medieval or very early post-medieval date, probably from a processional cross. It consists of a draped standing male figure holding an object (probably a book) in his left hand, and his right arm bent at the elbow so that the hand is raised with palm pointing outwards. The figure is standing on a octagonally faceted stand which tapers towards the break, which is broadly rectangular in cross-section.

The figure is standing facing. His hair is similar in style to that of a tonsured monk. There is a roll-moulding around the head, perhaps representing the end of the hair; numerous broadly vertical incisions are visible, depicting hair, which run over the moulding and end below the crown of the head. The figure has a prominent nose (3.75mm wide) and eyebrows (10.15mm wide); the eyes are open and pointed-oval. The lips are 3.7mm wide, the ears are not shown. The head including the hair is 15.6mm in length and 16.3mm wide. The gilding from the front of the face has been worn.

The body of the figure is 60.9mm in length and 24mm wide. The right hand is raised with the palm pointed outwards and the fingers located adjacent to the shoulder. Drapery runs from the shoulder, under the raised hand before running above the left hand holding the artefact. The right hand side of his body has a single vertical groove depicting drapery, the left hand side has four vertical grooves depicting drapery. The majority of the reverse has not been decorated with drapery and the gilding is worn.

The octagonal-section stand is 22.05mm wide and 19.95mm deep before tapering to 8.2mm wide and 6.2mm deep, before expanding slightly to 10.25mm wide and 6.7mm deep at the break.

The figurine is a total of 84.05 mm in length, 19 mm wide, 15.05 mm thick and weighs 90.53 g.

The object has been published as a probable figure of St John from a processional cross by Hourihane (2005, 145; fig. 109, no. F1); see also SWYOR-7C6154 on this database, also suggested to be St John the Evangelist. A seated figurine on a similar octagonally faceted base is set within the crook of Bishop Richard Fox's crosier, now in the collection Corpus Christi College, Oxford. This is dated to the early 16th century and made of gilded silver; it represents St Peter, patron of Winchester of which Fox was bishop from 1501 to 1528 (Marks and Williamson 2003, no. 104). A much smaller standing figure of the Virgin and Child on a hexagonally faceted base, also of gilded silver, is known from the belt-attachment of the seal matrix of St Stephen's Church, Bristol, now in Bristol Museums and Art Gallery, which is dated to c. 1450-1470 (Marks and Williamson 2003, no. 315).

The object was published in the October 2003 edition of The Searcher magazine; the date of discovery has been added based on this.