HOOK

A Post Medieval lead-tin (pewter) dress hook probably dating to cAD1500 - 1600. The plate is formed of three lobes arranged in a triangle with a central pellet and raised lines between them, defining each lobe. Each lobe is domed with a convex front and flat back and decorated with a saltire with a pellet in each quarter. The oputer edge of the lobes are decorated with a row of pellets which project slightly to create a wavy border. The backplate has the remains of two projections at the top, each near the centre of a lobe and aligned along a casting seam. Starting in the centre of the third lobe and contining to the edge is a ridge with D-shaped cross section and three raised ribs across it.

The plate measures 17.86mm in length, 17.20mm in width, 5.19mm in thickness and weighs 3.68g.

Dress hooks of similar form are classified by Read (2008: 78) as his Class D, type 6. In its form and construction, if not its decoration, the dress hook bears an obvious similarity to relatively more common silver gilt examples (e.g. YORYM-49BDAC) and some in copper alloy including SOM-0BF130. There is an excavated example from Newcastle upon Tyne's Castle ditch dated to the late-16th century, while documentary evidence support such a date, indicating that such items were popular in the sixteenth century, with the latest inventory referencing them dated to 1598 (Gaimster et al. 2002: 160, 184). Lead-tin examples are rarer, possibly an incident of survival.