HOOKED TAG

Description: Incomplete silver gilt early post medieval Tudor hooked tag or dress hook. It is composite in construction with a decorative front plate, which is circular in shape with seven evenly spaced projecting knops around its edges. This front plate has a central flower motif with eleven oval petals radiating from a central point. There is a separate domed silver gilt rivet through the centre of this flower, holding the decorative front plate to a separate flat back plate. Projecting from the upper edge of the front plate and integral to it is the remains of a transverse rectangular loop. The hook is soldered to the back plate opposite the incomplete loop, tapers to a point and curves backwards abruptly.

Discussion: This hooked tag is most likely to be a variation on Gamisters' Group I and II (Antiquities Journal, 2002, 82, Tudor Silver-gilt dress-hooks: A new class of Treasure find in England, 160-167).

It is similar to Group 1 examples as it is composite in its construction but differs to his other examples, as the now fragmentary transverse rectangular loop is set vertically above the decorative plate and integral to the front plate, rather than soldered in place on the back-plate.

The transverse loop being in this position and integral to the front plate is more typical of hooked tags in Gamisters Group II. However, examples from this group are normally cast as one decorative element on a single plane and their decorative elements not of composite construction.

Dimensions: 21.39mm in length, 15.17mm in width and 2.16g in weight.

The precious metal content of this hooked tag fulfils the requirements of the Treasure Act in that it is greater than 10 %.