MEDIEVAL PURSE

1400

A fragment of a cast copper alloy purse frame of Late Medieval to Early Post-Medieval date (c. AD 1400 – c. AD 1600). Length: 58.0mm; width: 9.3mm and 6.1mm thick. Weight: 2.13g.This curved fragment has an old transverse break at each end and is sub-circular in cross-section. It has two sub-circular attachment loops on one side in the same plane. Between the loops there are several score marks which may have been created by filing.It has a patchy mid-green patina interspersed with superficial copper alloy corrosion products. Traces of tinning are visible.Ward Perkins 1940 (pp. 159-160) comments that: “Metal purse frames did not come into fashion until the very end of the medieval period… The earliest English representation of a medieval metal-framed purse would seem to be that on brass of John Browne, merchant, c. 1460, in All Saints, Stamford, but it is not until 1480 that they become common. From then on, until about 1520, they are, to the virtual exclusion of other types, a regular feature of civilian costume as shown on monumental brasses. After 1520 they occur only exceptionally, e.g. on the brass of John Cook in St. Mary-le-Crypt, Gloucester (1529) and on that of William Hyll at Solihull, Warwick (1549). A few metal purse-frames of a devolved type are to be seen on portraits of the third quarter of the 16th century; and the miniature purses carried by ladies of the 16th century at the end of a chain slung from the clasp of the belt seem often to have had metal frames. After this date, however, it apparently became unfashionable to carry a purse, for it is never shown in 17th century portraits…”