Decorative wooden roof boss from Llanbadarn Fawr Church, Wales, late fifteenth century

This rectangular boss is in the form of a flattened and stylised rose with leaves at the angles. The inner circle of the rose consists of five petals, surrounded by a circle of seven larger petals, with four leaves in each corner. The back of the boss is flat and plain. There are four small circular holes, one towards the edge of each corner, which run through the full thickness of the boss. They can be seen on the front in the tip of each of the four leaves. There are also two larger holes which are arranged diagonally on the rear. These do not run through the full-thickness. Two modern metals plates, used to display the boss against a wall, have been screwed to the back.

Given by W. Crewdson

Given by W. Crewdson

Bosses are often placed where the ribs of a vault meet fastening the ribs and therefore fufilling a structural role. Bosses used in cathedral vaults can be very large in scale. Structural bosses usually carried carved and painted decoration. When viewed close up the decoration on bosses from Gothic cathedral vaults can look crude or heavy-handed but such an approach was needed in order to make the decoration visible from ground level.

This boss is very small in scale and cannot have peformed a structural function. It must therefore have been utilsied in a purely decorative fashion. In his catalogue entry Charles Tracey points out that bosses like this began to be used from 1400 onwards. He notes that bosses like this could be used to make a frieze on the wall plate or along each side of a tie-beam. Also that groups of four bosses were sometimes applied to the panelling at the four corners of a rib intersection where the ceiling was divided into compartments.

The rose was commonly used in art of this period and it could carry different meanings depending on the context. For example stylised roses were incorporated into heraldic devices, and in other contexts the rose could carry religious symbolism. In this instance the overall impression is that the rose is used in a largely decorative capacity. This is underlined by the three other bosses related to this one which all feature stylised vegetation with serrated leaves prominent in each.

The boss is from Llanbadarn Fawr Church, near Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales. A letter from W. Crewdson to the V&A, dated 23 February 1908, includes a passage which reads: ' I write to say that your bosses were orginally part of the roof of the Church at Llanbadarn Fawr a village about a mile SE of Aberystwyth. The Church was what is called "restored" some years since and these boses were then discarded.'

Bosses were frequently placed where the ribs of a vault (or ceiling) met. They usually performed a functional role as well as a decorative one. Bosses used in cathedral vaults can be very large in scale. This small rectangular boss, once part of wooden church ceiling, has been carved in the form of a flattened and stylised rose with leaves at each of the four corners. The size of this example, and the fact that the back is flat and plain, indicates that this boss was used purely for decorative effect. This example is probably from Llanbadarn Fawr church, near Aberystwyth in Wales.

118-1908