English: Post Medieval copper alloy dog collar belonging to Samuel Birch of Shilton near Burford in Oxfordshire and dated 1676 on the collar.

The collar is a flat strip 41.1mm wide by 1.9mm thick and still bent into a circle with overlapping ends and weighs 335g. The circle is a maximum of 164mm across, although the iron rivets show there was previously more overlap so the diameter would have been smaller, c.140mm. The end of the strip on the inside is square while the end on the outer side has the corners cut at an angle with a straight edge in the centre creating a trapezoid end.

There is a circular hole through this trapezoid end and four rectangular holes (14.2 by 5.8mm) punched through the strip at regular intervals (33-37mm apart), starting from this trapezoid end. There are five circular holes (3.8mm in diameter) arranged at the same regular intervals starting c.13mm from the straight, inner, end. The rusted remains of iron ring hasps go though the two outer holes in each row and would previously have been connected and fixed the overlap (and therefore the collar) at its tightest point. From contemporary parallels one of these iron rivets would have continue into a loop to hold a ring to which the leash could be connected.

The outer side is elaborately decorated with an incised inscription running all the way around starting by the first circular rivet hole and continuing to just after the last rectangular hole. The inscription reads: Samuell Birch (shield) att Shilton neare Burford in Oxfordshir[e] 1676. The writing is a very neat and fine hand with the lines forming the capitals doubled and the areas between the doubled lines shaded by diagonal lines. The shield is a chevron between three fleur de lis arranged two and one with a crescent for difference. The crescent marks these as the arms for a second son. Vertical line shading on the outer ends of the crescent seems to be for appearance rather than to indicate the colour. The end of the inscription would have been hidden when the collar was done up and there is also the appearance of a potential symbol or honorific at the start of the inscription now obscured by the iron corrosion product surrounding the first circular hole. This suggests the inner circular and rectangular holes were cut in later to tighten the collar.

Flanking the inscription along the upper and lower edges of the strip is a line of annulets arranged in regular waves with each alternate wave connected by an opposing arched line of annulets to make, in effect, pointed ovals linked by and alternating with lines curving into the centre. Each pointed oval and the space between the alternating curved lines and edge of the strip is decorated with a stamped double concentric ring.

Samuel Birch II (1620/21-1680), ejected minister and schoolmaster, was the second son of Samuel Birch of Ardwick Manor, Manchester. He Matriculated from Brasenose College Oxford in 1637 and was a Major in the Parliamentary army before returning to Oxford. During this period it is known he fought under his brother Colonel John Birch, a Parlimentary commander and noted parlimentarian, whose regiment in the New Model Army helped capture Bridgwater in July 1645 amongst other sucesses. Samuel became a minister at Bampton, Oxfordshire, during the interregnum and was ejected at the restoration in 1662. He initially stayed in the parish and preached until the passing of the Five-Mile Act in 1664 when he moved to Shilton, Berkshire. Here he opened a 'conventicling' school for the sons of dissenters which was very popular and successful with many future MPs amongst his pupils. (Details taken from Joan A.Dils 'Birch, Samuel (1620/21-1680)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [<a href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66928">http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66928</a>, accessed 22 Aug 2016] ). While the Samuel Birch described above did have a son also named Samuel the latter would be no older than 16 at the time so is less likely to be the owner of the collar and dog.

The size of the collar suggests a large-necked hunting dog of some kind. Samuel Birch clearly had connections across the country from his ministry, studies and teaching, and perhaps less happy ones from his military service, and was presumably visiting locally with his dog when it was lost between 1676 and his death in 1680.

See Rogers and Robinson (2003:214) for two examples with similar vertical slots fitting over ring hasps and other dated and named examples of comparable form.