Summary

Brass seal matrix and impression of a monk, found at Crossraguel Abbey, Ayrshire, 13th century

Accession Number

H.NM 201

Other references

Original description

SEALS AND STAMPS. Brass seal-matrix, 1 5/16" x 13/16". F. at Crosraguel Abbey. AYR-S. Pointed oval 1.3 x .8". ? Crossragule Abbey. Depicts Virgin and Child, adoring monk below. and motto: (diff. to read.) Impression. Caption note, February 1993: 13th century.//T. Deniozou note, 2011-02-25, Information taken from Glenn, Virginia, Romanesque & Gothic: Decorative Metalwork and Ivory Carvings in the Museum of Scotland, NMSE Publishing, Edinburgh, 2003: [One of] B1, C42, 41-2 [Angels, Nobles and Unicorns reference] //Within the pointed oval the composition is divided horizontally, half-length figures of the Virgin lactans and Child, without halos, in the upper register and a kneeling praying monk, also half-length, facing left in the lower. The architectural framing consists of a simple pointed trilobate arch at the top, a triangular gable with a trefoil arch over the figure of the monk and plain blind arcading in the space between the two registers. The modelling of the figures is cursory and the lettering, within beaded borders, is uneven in size and irregular in form.//The handle is a pointed ridge, stepped to a curved loop with a round hole.//Crossraguel was a Cluniac house, the foundation date of which is unclear. There was an oratory on the site in the early 13th century, but the first abbots mentioned in the chronicles do not appear until the 1270s, although building work may have been in progress in the previous decade.2//The design of the matrix is one found frequently on seals of minor ecclesiastical figures in northern Europe. Crossraguel stands in the district of Carrick, but ‘H. de Carrec’ was probably actually the monk’s own family name. The Carricks were a prominent Ayrshire family by the 13th century, kinsmen of the holders of the earldom of the same name, which passed in her own right to Marjorie, mother of King Robert Bruce.3 Seals for other clerics of the family were inscribed ‘gilberti de kerik’(archdeacon of Glasgow c1476) and ‘iohannis de carrig’ (chancellor of Glasgow 1371).4//NOTES:1 MacDonald 1919, 24.//2 Cowan and Easson 1976, 63-4.//3 Barrow 1988, 25.//4 Birch 1895, no 15169, 118 and no 15177, 120.

Associated person/people (e.g. excavator/former collection)

Virgin and Child

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Not recorded

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1939

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Not recorded

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Donor

Image