In Fig. 527 are given three views of one half of a complete mould for palstaves, which was found with a hoard of bronze objects, including seven palstaves without loops, at Hotham Carr, in Yorkshire, E.R. It is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. Among the palstaves which were found with it only one was in an undamaged condition.
—Fig. 528—Wiltshire. ½ —Fig. 529—Wiltshire. ½
As will be seen from the figure, there are projections or dowels on the face of this half of the mould which fit into corresponding depressions in the counterpart, so as to steady the two halves when brought together and keep them in proper position. At the top is a cup-shaped cavity for the reception of the metal. Any portion of the casting which occupied this part of the mould was broken off from the palstave when it was cool, and was kept for re-melting. Such waste pieces, or jets, from the moulds are of common occurrence in the old founders’ hoards, and some will be subsequently noticed.
Another mould for simple palstaves was found in Danesfield, near Bangor,[1702] in 1800. It is for a blade rather wider at the edge and narrower in the shank than that produced by the Yorkshire mould. With it was found another mould for a looped palstave of about the same size. One half of each pair of moulds is in the British Museum, and the other half in Lord Braybrooke’s collection at Audley End. The half of a bronze mould for a simple palstave, with a shield-shaped ornament below the stop-ridge, was found in Ireland.[1703] One of the same kind was lately in the collection of Mr. Stevenson of Lisburn.
In the British Museum is another mould for looped palstaves, which is shown in Figs. 528 and 529, for the use of which I am indebted to the Council of the Society of Antiquaries.[1704] The original was found in Wiltshire. It is remarkable as bearing on each of its halves bands evidently cast from actual twine which has been upon the model; but the bands on the two halves do not coincide, being on the one placed higher than on the other. The sides are also joggled together in a singular manner. As to the bands of cording, it may be that the model of the first half of the mould was formed of clay, which when dry, in order to prevent its being broken, was tied on to the palstave on which it had been shaped, and was thus moulded in clay or loam; and that afterwards, when the second half of the mould had to be cast by a similar process, the model for it was tied on to the half-mould already formed, the binding being in contact with the side of the band already in relief upon the back and sides of the half-mould.
Several palstave moulds formed of bronze have been found in different countries in Europe.
The half of one, found in the Saône, for looped palstaves, is in the museum at Lyons.[1705]
