320 (34)

292

Dress Accessońes

Psalter shows a lady’s long hair being prepared for pinning up in this style by her maid (fig 191), but only women who had long, thick hair could wear this style without the addition of a false hair-piece.

The recovery of a hair-piece from a deposit in London dating to the second quarter of the 14th century offers new information on how this style was achieved (no. 1450, fig 192). The piece is madę from human hair which appears to have been blond originally. One plait 382mm in length is preserved complete and it is bound along its length with strands of similar hair, Z-twisted into fine cords, to help the plait hołd its shape. There is also part of a second hair-piece, or the piece may have been added to the full-length plait to give it extra body. The plait bends in the middle and from this it can be inferred that it was wom folded in two with the bend falling just below the ear. The plait was stitched with a strong two-ply thread of silk used double to a narrow silk braid which was woven using 26 tablets. This braid, which would have been wom across the forehead as a headband, was decorated along its length with a series of at least 18 mounts and, from the impression that the mounts have left outlined on the surface of the braid, it appears that they were of octofoil-form. The mounts seem to have been

193

192

Plaited hair-piece with silk, tablet-woven filet no. 1450 (1:3)

Joan, wife of Sir Miles Stapleton, with plaited hair, filet and veil c. 1365 (after JS Cotman’s engraving of a monumental brass, formerly in Ingham Church, Norfolk)