325 (29)

297

Pins

Morę than 800 pins from six sites were examined for this survey. This does not represent the total extent of the collections as the ąuantity of pins from 14th and early 15th-century deposits is particularly extensive, but an exhaustive study was ruled out through lack of time. This abund-ance is not surprising especially when one consid-ers that the trousseau of Princess Joan, who was contracted to be married in 1348, included 12,000 pins for her veils (Nicolas 1846, 75 & 145-6), while the cargoes of two Venetian galleys calling at Southampton in April 1440 on their way back from Flanders included 83,000 pins, which was the merchandise of seven merchants (Cobb 1961, 77-80). What is surprising is how few pins have apparently been excavated for this period from other towns in England.

The pins excavated recently in London not only demonstrate the vast increase in the use of pins by the 14th century, but also reveal changes in manufacturing methods that lead to a transforma-tion in their size during the 12th century. The pin shank became finer due to a greater availability of drawn wire and in keeping with this the head, which was madę separately from the shank, became smaller. This decrease in size affected how pins were used, sińce they would no longer have been wom instead of brooches to fasten thick outer garments. It is apparent from ward-robe accounts of the 14th century that pins were used to fasten veils (Staniland 1978, 228) and many examples are depicted in 15th-century art, where they are shown pinning the folds of linen headdresses or securing transparent veils to the hair or round the shoulders to the front of a gown (fig 198). It may be supposed that pins were put to a similar use in the late 12th and 13th centuries but evidence to confirm this is needed.

Pins with decorative heads continued to be produced, but they are far less common than in previous centuries and their diminutive size meant that the decoration would not have been immediately obvious to an onlooker. Indeed only 21 of the pins included in this survey proved to be decorated. Three of these were recovered from deposits dating from the late 12th century (cera-mic phase 6) and they are particularly interesting as the head of each was madę from a different materiał to that of the shank. Fifteen of the other pins with decorated heads came from deposits dating to the 14th century (ceramic phases 9, 10 and 11). Three of these have coral heads, while on the other 12 the decoration draws on a limited repertoire of geometrie pattems and lacks the virtuosity displayed by many of the larger pins of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking epochs which would have been wom morę conspicuously. Three pins with acom heads complete the rangę of decoration represented. Two of these are from deposits of the early 15th century and they would there-fore have matched the ornament on some con-temporary dress accessories, particularly strap-ends on girdles (see nos. 648 & 651, fig 92, no. 675, fig 94, and nos. 704 & 705, fig 97), and tassels on drawstring pouches, which were some-times madę to resemble acoms (Ceulemans et al. 1988, 208-9 no. 41).

Pins were also madę from bonę in medieval England (MacGregor 1985, 112) but there are nonę from deposits dated later than the early 12th century in recent excavations in the City (Pritch-ard fortheoming). Certain forms of pins with hipped shanks (ie shanks with a swelling towards the tip to help prevent the pin from slipping out of position) and, less often, looped heads, which were madę from copper alloy as well as from bonę up to the middle of the 12th century and possibly a little later, have been recorded from the City in the past (Roach-Smith 1859, pl XXXIV, nos. 26, 28 & 29; and pl XXXIV, nos. 20 & 21), and very recently from a site at Cannon Street. These are interpreted by some scholars as dress-pins and by others as hair-pins (Margeson 1982, 249), but whether all of them were indeed worn as dress accessories remains arguable. The virtual ab-sence of bonę pins after the early 13th century appears to have been because they could not compete in fmeness with metal pins which were essential for use with fine veiling.

Three pins from late 12th-century London illustrate the introduction of new forms at this period. Their shanks are madę from fine brass wire with a gauge of c.0.5mm; these are among the finest preserved from London for the whole