389 (12)

362

Dress Accessońes

i

1716

r

1717

241 Top and bottom left, cast copper alloy mirror cases; bottom right, possible mirror case of copper alloy sheeting (1:1)

materiał intemally may be cement stained from the lead backing to the glass.

The economy of design which a present day observer might see in the use two similar compo-nents for each of these handy, mass produced mirrors, is to some extent belied by the morę labour-intensive, secondary hole drilling and de-corating processes. The two parts of no. 1714 appear from the discrepancy in the diameters to be from different moulds, hinting that a sizeable production enterprise probably lay behind these objects. This kind of ingenious use of identical components slightly adapted is not a common feature among medieval artefacts (but cf Fingerlin 1971, 442^3 pl 517 no. 449 - part of a late 14th century belt). There are also parallels with the way the two components of the folding spectacle frames of bonę found at the Trig Lane site were used (cf Rhodes 1982A, 57-73), quite aside from the common factor of optical glass. Both these objects use two identical main components, both could be folded to a compact disc which would protect the glass, and both have side lugs by which they could have been bound for secure closure (ibid, 62). It would be interesting to know whether these sometimes similarly named glass items (mirrors and spectacles could both be referred to as spedacula in late-medieval records - though there were other terms too) were also manufactured by the same craftsmen, despite the different materials of the respective holders.