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The Collation

Some close observation and deductive reasoning led commenters in the right direction in solving the June crocodile mystery. Here’s image that I posted last week, with a bit more context:

the clasp that was June’s crocodile

With that bit of the surrounding context, it’s much clearer that it’s a picture of the catch to a clasp on a fifteenth-century calf binding. 1 

  1. But of course, the context makes solving the mystery too easy! But the visible details—the rivets holding this in place, the catch opening on the right—were enough to lead observers to its identity. Kudos to John Lancaster, who was the first to suggest that it was the catch-plate to a binding clasp.

Comments

I love clasps and bindings! Thanks for this informative and delightful post. I’m very excited about the Bindings Image collection.

Miriam Jacobson — June 12, 2012