375 (18)

348

Dress Accessońes

ribbon was then hemmed to the back of the pouch and the other oversewn to the edge of the front. Before the silk binding was sewn into position a third piece of ribbon, which had been folded double and sewn into a narrow cord by stitching both selvedges together, was placed inside the binding as a reinforcement cord. Further rows of stitch holes along the bottom of the pouch indicate that the present edging is not the original. Surviving h 92mm; surviving w 92mm.

Cloth pouches

Pouches madę from cloth appear to have been popular in the 13th and 14th centuries, and although many are preserved as reliąuary pouches, especially in cathedrals and abbeys on the continent, few have been excavated in Eng-land. There are four from the London excavations included in this survey, one from a deposit of c.1270 (ceramic phase 8) and three from deposits of the late 14th century (ceramic phase 11).

Only the top portion of the earliest pouch is preserved (no. 1697). It was madę from at least five scraps of silk cloth of identical weave - a 1.3 weft-faced compound twill probably woven in Spain - and the top opening was fmished with a tablet-woven edge worked with two. four-hole tablets (Pritchard 1985, 31 fig 6; Crowfoot et al. forthcoming). Part of a silk plait was found in association with the pouch and this was probably a drawstring from it. The pouch can be compared with one found in the medieval city ditch at Aldersgate earlier this century (Ward-Perkins 1940,161 fig 49) which was madę from a silk cloth pattemed with heraldic devices; triple-towered castles on one side and fleurs de lis alternating with swans on the other. This cloth, which is a type of pannus de aresta, was also probably woven in Spain during the 13th century.

The cloth pouches from late 14th-century London are smaller than those of leather. They are madę from a single rectangular strip of cloth which is folded double along the bottom edge. The side seams are tablet-woven with the weft being inserted through the cloth with a needle. The tablet weaving began along one side; round the opening at the top the pack of tablets was divided in half and first one side of the opening was worked and then the other; the two halves of the pack were reunited for seaming the opposite side of the purse. The ends of the warp were tied into tassels. Further tassels were madę separ-ately and stitched into place.

Ali three 14th-century cloth pouches are madę from fabrics which would not have been readily available a century earlier. Two examples are madę from half-silk velvets with a long, solid, cut pile (nos. 1698 & 1699). One system of threads (the weft) has almost entirely decayed in the acidic soil conditions indicating it was a cellulose fibrę, probably flax, and this has left the cloths in tatters. The silk tablet-woven edging, which was used to finish the pouches, has, however, enabled them to keep their original shape (fig 230). The third pouch does not have a drawstring fastening and instead a smali handle madę from a fingerloop braid was inserted through the hole in one comer (no. 1700, fig 231). This suggests that the pouch may have served a slightly different purpose and perhaps contained sweet-smelling herbs; lav-ender sachets are recorded in inventories at this period (Dillon and St John Hope 1897, 287 and 307). The silk cloth from which this pouch was madę is a type of materiał that in the 14th century was often called camoca (King and King 1988, 69; Crowfoot et al. forthcoming); it is pattemed with rows of hexagons containing beasts or birds intertwined with sprays of foliage, while heraldic devices form panels between the hexagons.

1697    TL74 acc. no. 2434 (context 2532) ceramic phase 8

Part of pouch madę from five pieces of silk cloth woven in an identical 1.3 weft-faced compound twill. The top edge was folded inwards once before it was fmished in tablet-weave. Surviving h 40mm; w 90mm. (Crowfoot et al. forthcoming, no. 398).

1698    BC72 1849 (55) 11 fig 230 Drawstring pouch madę from a rectangular strip of half-silk velvet folded double and finished along both the sides and top opening with a tablet-woven edge; the tassels in the comers are madę from the warp ends of the tablet-woven edging with some extra threads looped in, and the tassel in the centre is sewn on to the velvet. h 80mm; w 75mm (Crowfoot et al. forthcoming, no. 349).

1699    BC72 3684 (150) 11

Pouch as preceding but in a morę fragmentary State, lined with silk taffeta. h 80mm; w 70mm. (Crowfoot et al. forthcoming, no. 350).