314 (34)

286

Dress Accessońes

one side ending in chapes, wom by a woman. Pourpoints and aketons (both jaćket/tunic-like garments, the latter wom with armour) apparent-ly had fastening laces with metal chapes in the mid fourteenth century (Newton 1980, 55 and 136, citing another Great Wardrobe account of 1343-44, where 216 aiguillettes for nine aketons are noted - ie 24 for each aketon).

The reference to an agletmakere in London in 1365 shows that lace chapes were madę in the City a century after the form seems to have been introduced (Veale 1969, 145). Nevertheless, one gross ‘agulet’ (sic) were among the goods im-ported by ship to London in 1384 (Public Record Office, Customs Accounts E122/71/8 - reference kindly provided by Vanessa Harding). By 1466 the rangę of items in different metals madę by London ‘chapemakers’ (ie makers of chapes for swords and daggers) included anlettes (chapes for laces) of two types - tailed and round (Sharpe 1912, 64). The difference between these two kinds remains enigmatic in view of the uniformity of the chapes identified from early 15th-century deposits.

Although drawstrings are known on excavated shoes from London from at least as early as the llth century, and lacing to fasten footwear seems from excavated specimens to have continued in use over the whole period considered in this present volume (Grew and de Neergaard 1987, 2-3), the only metal shoe-lace ends among the recent finds are fiat tabs, madę from folded iron sheeting (cf strap-ends nos. 589 & 593). There is no indication among the excavated chapes which items of clothing (or other articles, such as bags or cushions laced at the side) the laces would have been used to fasten.

It has been suggested that chape-like objects were used as holders for pins (Groves 1966, 49 and pl 58, cf Nóel-Hume 1970, 255). As has been pointed out (IH Goodall 1975, 145) this is unlikely to have been the function originally intended for these objects, though it may have been an occa-sional secondary use.

Some pens madę of copper-alloy sheeting are known from 15th-century contexts, with the same edge-to-edge seams on the tubes as for the chapes (eg Woods 1982, 256-57 no. 4 fig 25 - this

186 Undressing for the bath (a servant bores a spy hole from the next room); 15th century (after Wavrin Master, Histoire de Girat de Nevers, Bibliotheąue Royale, Brussels MS 9631 f.ll)