Sheath

Part of a leather knife sheath, cut at either end. The front is decorated with impressed lines marking out a rectangular panel which is decorated with incised decoration in the form of foliate motifs and a possible wing, perhaps intended to be a bird. The background of the panel is decorated with stabbed dots. The back has very simple linear decoration. The back has a side of centre seam which appears to have been glued and there is the remains of an integral smaller sheath. The spine of this smaller sheath is marked with an undulating impressed line. There may be the remains of an internal lining. This is a very interesting sheath due to the glued seam, a feature more normally associated with the 16th century.

This sheath was recovered in the early 1980s from the spoil tip for the archaeological excavations at old Billingsgate fish market on Lower Thames Street in the City of London.