File:An incomplete Post Medieval silver gilt dress hook (FindID 274282).jpg

English: An incomplete Post Medieval silver single sharp-hooked clasp with gilding, 16th century AD. The clasp belongs to Read’s (2008) clasp Class D, Type 6 because it is trefoil in plan. The silver has been cast into a trefoil, with a D-shaped section and a flat back. The trefoil clasp has three domed bosses, each of which has been decorated with two wire filigree annulets separated by two granules. Each domed boss has a lobed outer edge at the base. In the centre of the clasp, a domed-head split-pin has been used to attach a cinquefoil flower made of silver sheeting to the top of the trefoil – the pin then continues through the plate and is splayed and folded back at the reverse. Apart from the silver sheet flower, the entire of the front surface of the silver clasp has been gilded. Traces of gilding are present on the reverse at the outer edge, but mostly it is silver. At the outer edge of the reverse a rectangular-shaped attachment loop has been soldered on and projects at ninety-degrees to the fitting. This loop would have enabled the clasp to be sewn onto a garment. At the opposite point to the attachment-loop, the sharp hook would have projected but this is now missing. There is a concave scar in the reverse where the hook would have been embedded and soldered. Read (2008) illustrates an almost identical clasp, p. 79 ref. 264, although here the sheet-metal flower has nine petals rather than five.

Dimensions: length: 13.38mm; width: 13.62mm; thickness: 9.08mm; weight: 2.37g.

Reference: Read, B. 2008. Hooked-Clasps and Eyes. A Classification and Catalogue of Sharp- or Blunt-Hooked Clasps and Miscellaneous Hooks, Eyes, Loops, Rings or Toggles. Portcullis Publishing, Langport, Somerset.