TWEEZERS

Medieval (13th to 14th century) composite tweezers/page holder: The copper alloy page holder is incomplete and one plate remains. This plate is sub-square in plan, with one edge having two asymmetrical semi-oval indentations. The outer face is decorated with a geometric design made of a roulette zigzag design and border. The decoration is broadly a border line, a saltire, a V shape below the junction, and lateral lines between the sides of the cross. On the outer face there is a vertical rectangular abraded surface where originally the arm of the tweezers would have been fixed, indicating the page holder to be a composite type. The reverse is undecorated and has slightly obliquely angled rectangular indentations which was probably the indentation of the other plate when the object was complete. The surface of the page holder has a shiny dark green patina. It measures 26.8mm long, 27.53mm wide, 0.81mm thick and weighs 3g.

Almost identical examples have been recorded on this database, ref. HAMP-DFCB47, SWYOR-272F62 and NARC-DE6915, which quotes a page holder from a 13th-century context at Winchester (Biddle 1990, 756; no. 2326A), with a direct parallel published in Klemperer and Boothroyd (2004, 161, 163; ref. 44). Most page holders recorded on this database are made of one piece, though SF8836 is also composite. It is noted in the record NMS-90DEE5 that in Norfolk the page holders of this date have a marked bias in distribution towards parishes with strong monastic associations. The page holders appear to date to the 13th or 14th centuries.

Biddle, M, 1990. Artefacts from Medieval Winchester : Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester. Winchester Studies 7 ii, pp756-7

Klemperer, W D and Boothroyd, N, 2004. Excavations at Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire, 1987-1994 Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology, pp161, 163

Ottaway, P and Rogers, N. 2002 Craft, Industry and Every Day Life: Finds From Medieval York: Council for British Archaeology,