TREASURE ANNU AL REPORT 2005/6 - Portable Antiquities Scheme

646. Derby, Derbyshire:
post-medieval silver-gilt dress-hook (2005 T103)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr H Wright while metaldetecting
in October 1999.
Description: A dress-hook cast on one plane with
a Tudor rose supporting a trapezoidal fastening bar.
A recurving hook of circular section soldered to the
reverse. The gilding is worn and the hook bent.
Length: 22.46mm.
Disposition: Derby Museum & Art Gallery.
B McLEOD
647. Kingsbridge, Devon: post-medieval silver-gilt
openwork dress-hook (2006 T646)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr B Lang while metal-detecting
in December 2006.
Description: A dress-hook cast in one plane, a pierced
openwork design with the remains of a hook at one
end springing from foliate tendrils. At the other end
there is an arcaded element with a foliate scroll
terminal. On the back, a transverse bar is soldered
beneath the arcade opening. The front is gilded.
Length: 24mm.
Discussion: This is a common type of copper-alloy
fitting, less often found in silver.
Disposition: Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery
hopes to acquire.
D THORNTON
648. paignton, Devon: post-medieval silver-gilt
tear-shaped dress-hook (2006 T617)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mrs A Parnell while metaldetecting
in July 2006.
Description: A cast silver-gilt dress-hook with a
tear-shaped backplate and scalloped edge. Both hook
and bar are now missing. The front is a raised hollow
cushion, decorated with filigree circles and knops.
Length: 16.5mm; thickness: 5mm.
Disposition: Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter,
hopes to acquire.
D WOOTTON
649. pinhoe, Devon: post-medieval silver-gilt
rectangular dress-hook (2005 T157)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr M Walker while metaldetecting
in December 2004.
Description: A complete silver-gilt rectangular dresshook,
cast on three sides and decorated with nine
bosses, three on each side. At the point the hook
joins the body of the dress-hook is a worn triangular
foliate pediment. The backplate is flat and scalloped
on the vertical sides. It has a rectangular aperture that
probably allowed it to be sewn onto clothing, as a dress
accessory. Weight: 3.07g.
Discussion: Gaimster et al. (2002) suggest this type
of dress-hook may have been made to resemble a
miniature lamp or sconce.
Disposition: Generously donated by finder and
landowner to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum,
Exeter.
N POWELL
650. ugborough, Devon: post-medieval silver
incomplete gilt dress-hook (2005 T23)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr G Fisher while metal-detecting
in December 2004.
Description: Part of a silver-gilt dress-hook. It is cast
in the form of a five-petalled flower on a five-pointed
star or pentagon. Each petal is surmounted by a
conical boss. A sixth, slightly smaller boss would have
sat in the middle of the flower, but this is now lost.
The attachment loop and hook are missing from the
reverse, their fixing points marked by the remains of
solder. Traces of gilding remain on the surface.
Weight: 2.69g.
Discussion: See Treasure Annual Report 2000, no. 179
and Gaimster et al. (2002), cat. 10, for similar examples.
Disposition: Plymouth City Museum.
N POWELL
651. Compton Abbas, Dorset: Two post-medieval
silver-gilt openwork dress-hooks (2006 T214)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr J Harper & Mrs V Harper while
metal-detecting in April 2005.
Description: Two dress-hooks, gilt both front and
back, of identical form, dimensions and facture. Each
takes the form of an openwork circular ornament
radiating three thistle-heads and foliage; seven circular
pierced holes at the centre form a flower head. On the
backplate, behind one of the thistle-heads, soldering
indicates the former presence of a recurving hook,
now lost; similar solder marks lower down suggest
the location of a rectangular bar attachment of the
kind found on other dress-hooks. This is not a type
previously recorded through the Treasure Act, however.
Diameter: 19mm approx.
Disposition: Dorset County Museum withdrew;
returned to finder.
D THORNTON
652. Good Easter, Essex: post-medieval
trefoil-shaped dress-hook fragment (2006 T178)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found while metal-detecting in
March 2006.
Description: Trefoil-shaped dress-attachment, made
from sheet in one plane with three round ‘leaves’
with applied gilt filigree ornament around central
white enamel(?) boss; two small integral loops for
attachment and one larger loop soldered onto the back.
Presumably one element from a two-part dress-hook,
the hook element now missing. Length: 1.3cm.
Disposition: Chelmsford Museum.
D THORNTON
653. botley, hampshire: post-medieval silver-gilt
trefoil-shaped dress-hook (2005 T142)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr S Keets while metal-detecting
in December 2004.
Description: A trefoil-shaped dress-hook with three
hemispherical bosses, each with applied filigree
ornament in the form of three circlets with granulated
knops, the inner circlet of each with no knop. In the
centre, there is an aperture which would have held a
central rosette, attached by a rivet (see Gaimster et al.
2002, p. 163). On the reverse is soldered an incurved
hook; the fastening bar now missing. Diameter: 18mm.
Disposition: Winchester Museums Service.
B McLEOD
654. Kingstone area, herefordshire: post-medieval
silver-gilt trefoil-shaped dress-hook (2006 T128)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr S Sloane while metaldetecting
in February 2006.
Description: A dress-hook of trefoil-shaped form,
comprising a triangular backplate with three
hemispherical gilt bosses, and a central knop. The
recurving hook is soldered on to the backplate at the
top, the bar attachment is now missing but its original
position is indicated by solder marks. The base of the
hook is flattened and punched with a maker’s mark in
a shaped shield, now illegible. Length: 19mm,
weight: 1.8g.
Discussion: This style of dress fastening was common
during the 16th century in Tudor England and used to
secure or close items of dress, likely restricted to
female costume.
Disposition: Hereford Museum and Art Gallery.
D THORNTON
655. barkway, hertfordshire: post-medieval
silver-gilt circular dress-hook (2005 T36)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr Shepherd while metaldetecting
in June 2004.
Description: A silver-gilt dress-hook, the hook and
attachment bar soldered to the reverse. The bar
inscribed possibly: ?17 ?57. The circular plate with
punched decoration, with alternate spokes and bosses
around the edge and a central spoke.
Discussion: The spokes may have held pearls. The
punch-marked decoration adds to the elaborate
decorative effect created by the alternate gilt bosses
and pearls. The numbering on the attachment bar
might indicate a sequential difference in size of the
individual elements of a suite of dress fastenings
including this element, see Gaimster et al. (2002).
Length: 22.2mm; width: 14.8mm; weight: 3.18g.
Disposition: British Museum.
B McLEOD
656. Arreton, Isle of Wight: post-medieval silver-gilt
lozenge-shaped dress-hook (2005 T202)
Date: 16th century
Discovery: Found by Mr J Trout while metal-detecting
in May 2005.
Description: A silver-gilt dress-hook, the cast backplate
with small projecting knops along the edges. The
central section has two soldered stepped concentric
cushions, and an engraved thistle motif flanked on
either side by a palmate leaf motif. On the reverse is
a recurving circular section hook, the tip missing. The
soldered transverse bar attachment is also missing.
Length: 24mm; weight: 7.21g.
Disposition: Isle of Wight Museum Service had hoped
to acquire but withdrew; returned to finder.
F BASFORD
142 POST-MEDIEVAL POST-MEDIEVAL 143