in black patinated excavated condition, with large rowel of eight spikes, long neck, broad angular heel-band rising to an acute point, pierced at each terminal with a pair of holes, and retaining a single buckle (restored, filled repairs, rowel loose)
21.5 cm overall

Provenance
Excavated at the site of Cannon Street Station
Ian Eaves, London, Keeper of Armour at the Royal Armouries (1978-1996)
Anthony de Reuck
Sale, Olympia, London, 26^th June 2013, lot 216 where acquired by the present owner (part)

This magnificent spur, dating from around 1425-50, was uncovered during construction of Cannon Street station, on the 500 year old site of the Steelyard, the home of the Hanseatic League in London, and is a beautifully tangible snapshot of the individuals that lived and made their fortunes there.

The Steelyard itself was a walled city within the walled City of London, possessing its own warehouses, chapel, weigh-house, guildhall, currency and system of measurement. Its resident merchants elected their own aldermen and lived an almost monastic existence, women being forbidden entry and contact with the pleasures of London and Southwark discouraged. Infractions were punished by a fine of candlewax, payable at neighbouring All Hallows the Great. Beyond spectacular spurs it is to this community that we owe some of the finest portraiture produced in Tudor England. Hans Holbein arrived at the Steelyard from Basel in 1532 and painted at least eight of the merchants, notably one of Georg Giese which currently resides in the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin.

The Hansa first coalesced in the twelfth century as a modest confederation of merchants banding together for security against piracy, and by the end of the 14th century had grown in to one of the most important trading bodies to ever exist in Europe. By the early 15th century they represented 30% of all cloth exports from London. In return their ships discharged Skania herring, Russian squirrel skins, Baltic furs, copper, iron, wax, timber, stockfish, tar, querns, glass, mirrors, linen, silk and north German beer.

Although it had long since lost its primary function the name lived on, and The Steelyard is plainly marked on John Rocque's great survey of London [lot 19]. The site remained in the hands of trustees from Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg until its eventual sale in 1853. A decade later the South Eastern Railway raised Cannon Street station over it. Today Steelyard Passage, running beneath the station, and Hanseatic Walk along the river preserve the organisation's distinguished memory.