23/06/2026
PAS Find of the week
Mary, the watchful Queen of Heaven
This object is a lead alloy figurine of The Virgin Mary, crowned - and perhaps enthroned - as Queen of Heaven. It dates to the late medieval period, c.1350-1500.
It’s bigger than contemporary pilgrim badge souvenirs, though like them was hollow cast, as a product of the same devotional industry.
Shrines like Walsingham, in East Anglia – displaying the Virgin’s house, which had miraculously flown in from Antioch in Syria – sold vast numbers of such souvenirs.
But a figurine was not just a cheap and cheerful reminder of a happy holiday…
It was also apt for veneration in the purchaser’s home, in a much later Christian version of the Roman shrine for the Lares, or household gods.
Like a Roman Lar, it enabled the worshipper to visualise its subject in definite naturalistic three-dimensional form.
This reflected a late medieval interest in private prayer, meditation and devotion, to supplement worship offered or festivals celebrated in church.
Holy images might also protect a home from illness or misfortune in a period where life could often be nasty, brutish and short, especially for the poor.
The same subjects appeared at a smaller scale on badges to be worn on a coat or hat; in books; and enlarged as painted statues and altarpieces.
But also perhaps at a much grander scale, as in the architecture of contemporary churches.
The square tower of St Mary’s Church, Barton-upon-Humber, has an arched belfry window on each side. It dates to the 13th century and overlooks the east end of Barton’s High Street.
In the late medieval period, it was surmounted by pinnacles and projections as side-fleurs and jewels to a crown, with rectangular plaques below to form its band.
A sidelong view of St Mary’s tower still presents narrowed eyes and arched brows below a crown, as the Queen of Heaven maintains her 700-year vigil over a parish under her care.
Figurine found at Epworth, North Lincolnshire – St Mary’s church tower still stands in Barton-upon-Humber!
