Rights Holder: Cambridgeshire County Council
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DRESS FASTENER (DRESS)
Unique ID: CAM-6D5406
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
Copper-alloy object initially identified as a lock plate, but with the help of Christoph Richter this has been more securely identified as a corset fastener of post-medieval or modern date. The object is small (12.7mm x 18.5mm), flat and heart-shaped. There is a small aperture formed of two conjoined punched circles, one larger than the other; above this keyhole-shaped aperture, in the upper lobes of the heart shape, are two copper-alloy rivets. The object is covered with a brown and dark green patina, with some patches of lighter corrosion product, Weight 1g and thickness 0.92mm.
Chris Richter provided the following visual reference to an image of such objects 'in action', at: http://www.neheleniapatterns.com/loeffelschliessen.jpg. A row of fasteners serves to close the corset at the front, placed along the busk (the rigid support at the front) so that it could be opened without the corset being fully unlaced. Opening busks appear to have come into use in the mid 19th century and continue to be used to the present day.
Class: corset fitting
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: MODERN
Date from: Circa AD 1850
Date to: Circa AD 2000
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 18.5 mm
Width: 12.7 mm
Thickness: 0.92 mm
Weight: 1 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Saturday 1st August 2009
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: Eastern (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Cambridgeshire (County)
District: South Cambridgeshire (District)
Parish or ward: Great Eversden (Civil Parish)
Spatial coordinates
4 Figure: TL3653
Four figure Latitude: 52.158531
Four figure longitude: -0.013299
1:25K map: TL3653
1:10K map: TL35SE
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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