POST MEDIEVAL PIN

1600

Fragment of post-medieval silver dress-pin, tapering shaft, net twice along its length, broken off just under the eye. Along the shaft from the eye end, incised decoration of zigzag with foliate infills. Maker's mark on one side, indistinct, but perhaps G over W. On the other side in the same position, owner's inititals, E.G. The pin dates to the 17th Century. This example has similar decoration and mark to a pin with silver ear scoop on the British Museum, Department of Prehistory and Europe, 1853, 6-27,78. A portrait of a well-to-do Dutch woman by Cornelis van Voort of 1624 shows a woman wearing such a pin in her head-dress. Similar examples have been excavated in Amsterdam and are listed in contemporary Dutch inventories; perhaps pins of this type were brought over by Dutch immigrants. See Sue Margeson, Norwich Households: the medieval and post-medieval finds, Norwich 1993, p.9.