Strap end or not? - 27

Made from a copper alloy, being 2.1cm by 1.4 cm,  this strap end is made from one piece of metal folded , three holes created - two with rivets still in place to hold it to the strap

Front

The design is of a beast/dragon, with something being issued from its mouth which continues to the rear of the strap end which carries, what seems to me to be, and abstract design.

Rear

As the piece began life as a flat piece of metal, the design continues from front to back.

Design reinforced and shown front and back.

 The terminal end of both side are roughly cut - the terminal ends of the front and back do not meet - 2/3mm difference between. 

Terminal end showing rough cut.

 I cannot pin down the date of the design, but suspect it to be Norman or thereabouts. 

I think the item did not begin life as a strap end has been recycled from another use.

During the reformation - 1530's - many books were destroyed and the metal strap work melted down or reused. Could this be such an example?


-----------I have since discovered that this may have begun life as an attachment to a belt buckle and is probably medieval.





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