A Very Unusual English Tomb Sculpture of a Carved Sandstone Otter

Period: 1300-1500

Origin: English

Medium: Sandstone

Literature: The otter in medieval times was symbolic of both Christ and the Devil, and therefore of the struggle between good and evil. The animal was widely used by priests as an allegory of Christ’s descent into hell.
The otters motto was ‘saevit in omnes’; ‘he is fierce in all things’, and as an end stop to a tomb slab for the recumbent effigy of an armoured knight upon which to eternally rest his feet, this possibly would have been an entirely appropriate sentiment.