3-000-262 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ancient "forcer", found in Westminster Abbey, 1860. Object '...called a "forcer"...[it] is nearly round, and about two feet in diameter and one foot in depth. It is made of stout leather, bound with small bars of iron, disposed to give it the greatest strength, and is an example...of the "forcerium correum, ferro ligatum" ("a leathern forcer, bound with iron")...these "forcers" were usually distinguished by a sign; but the specimen before us is merely covered with small devices of the fleur-de-lys impressed upon the leather, and is therefore only to be identified by the references in the general descriptions of such places of deposit. In both "cists" and "forcers" plate or documents were placed without any particular distinction. It is certain, however, that the Royal plate was usually deposited in the leathern cases; and in the accounts of the great robbery it is stated that some of the boatmen of the abbey ferried over certain of the monks who had with them just such a "forcer," in which "there was a great weight, but they knew not what".' From "Illustrated London News", 1860.