Bit Boss

probably Netherlandish

Not on view

The domed center of this ornamental boss is adorned with radiating ribs in openwork, circled by a scalloped rim.

This object mimicks, in a lower quality, bosses belonging to a large group of cast bosses using a series of rims and centers combined in different ways. The exact center of production of these bosses is still unclear. If the motifs used are Italian, the scale of the production and the process of combining a series of rims and center recalls contemporary German practices. Some of them, however, are identical or very similar to bosses seen in several early 17th-century Netherlandish paintings, a likely origin for the manufacture of these objects.

Bit Boss, copper alloy, iron, gold, probably Netherlandish

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