C, 13th-14th century

A nice lead pilgrims open pouched shaped ampulla with suspensory rings at the base of the neck. It is decorated with a Catherine wheel to one side, while the other side is decorated with a coat of arms with a chevron.

During the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, pilgrims who visited the Holy Land were likely to purchase an ampulla, outside the shrines of a revered saint. These were a type of container filled with holy water from the same sites or oil used for lamps burning before important pilgrimage shrines. The lure of the ampulla as an object capable of bestowing holy miracles gave it the same appeal as a relic. Thus, when pilgrims were not wearing their ampulla around their necks, they were using the contents within them to try to administer cures.

Provenance: Yorkshire collection, collected in the mid 1990’s.

Suspensory rings a bent and a little damage to edge otherwise nice detail.

Size: 41mm height