A Post-Medieval copper alloy dress hook, probably dating to c. AD 1500-1600.
The artefact is trefoilate in plan formed of three lobes arranged in a triangle and plano-convex in cross section. Each lobe is domed with a convex front and partially flat back with central slightly concave areas. An applied rectangular loop and the attached portion of the hook survive in situ, soldered onto the back plate into these hollows.
The front face's outer edge is decorated with a row of pellets, now slightly abraded and chipped in places. Each trefoil is decorated with two annulets each surrounding a central raised pellet plus one third of a central annulet shared evenly divided between each trefoil. The centre of this inner annulet is damaged but may have contained a central pellet.
Occasional holes are present in the front of the trifoliate design showing it to be hollow while the hook is broken just beyond the end of the backplate. The loop is bent inwards towards the backplate at its centre.
The artefact is 24.9mm long 23.9mm wide and 9.6mm thick. It weighs 4.83 grams.
Dress hooks of similar form are classified by Read (2008: 75-78) as his Class D, type 6. Many similar examples are included in this reference while similar examples in this database are known from the region e.g. SOM-FD1746, SOM-0BF130 and further afield SWYOR-7A0654, HAMP-B7066E.
In its form, decoration and construction the dress hook bears an obvious similarity to relatively more common silver gilt examples, although the decoration on this example is a simplified version, with 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).
A Post-Medieval copper alloy dress hook, probably dating to c. AD 1500-1600.
The artefact is trefoilate in plan formed of three lobes arranged in a triangle and plano-convex in cross section. Each lobe is domed with a convex front and partially flat back with central slightly concave areas. An applied rectangular loop and the attached portion of the hook survive in situ, soldered onto the back plate into these hollows.
The front face's outer edge is decorated with a row of pellets, now slightly abraded and chipped in places. Each trefoil is decorated with two annulets each surrounding a central raised pellet plus one third of a central annulet shared evenly divided between each trefoil. The centre of this inner annulet is damaged but may have contained a central pellet.
Occasional holes are present in the front of the trifoliate design showing it to be hollow while the hook is broken just beyond the end of the backplate. The loop is bent inwards towards the backplate at its centre.
The artefact is 24.9mm long 23.9mm wide and 9.6mm thick. It weighs 4.83 grams.
Dress hooks of similar form are classified by Read (2008: 75-78) as his Class D, type 6. Many similar examples are included in this reference while similar examples in this database are known from the region e.g. SOM-FD1746, SOM-0BF130 and further afield SWYOR-7A0654, HAMP-B7066E.
In its form, decoration and construction the dress hook bears an obvious similarity to relatively more common silver gilt examples, although the decoration on this example is a simplified version, with 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).
A RDF representation of SOM-6DE4E0
2019-02-15T15:44:14+00:00
2019-03-04T09:18:19+00:00
SOM-6DE4E0
SOM-6DE4E0
GB
en-GB
The Trustees of the British Museum
The Trustees of the British Museum
1
http://purl.org/NET/Claros/vocab#Thumbnail
Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum
A thumbnail image of SOM-6DE4E0
Copper alloy
Primary material of object
Complete
23.9
Width
24.9
Length
9.6
Thickness
4.83
Weight
By Attribution 3.0
The period from for the object
Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum
A full resolution image of SOM-6DE4E0
1500
1600