MEDIEVAL PURSE

1400

An incomplete cast copper alloy purse frame of Late Medieval or Early Post-Medieval date (c. AD 1400 – c. AD 1600). Length (if straightened): 99.0mm and 5.5mm thick. Weight 17.51g.The object consists of a circular cross-section rod measuring 5.5mm in diameter with an old transverse break at each end. The rod has three small integral attachment loops which are all in the same plane.The object is mainly covered with superficial copper alloy corrosion products. However, small areas of a mid-green patina have survived.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…”