402 (16)

Combs

375

250 Wooden double-sided comb with inscription (drawing 1:2, photograph 3:4)

1745

BS

another comb with this form of patteming was recovered from a deposit of the late 14th century (no. 1737, fig 249). The remainder from 14th-century deposits lack decoration apart from sim-ple transverse grooves, which also served as guidelines.

Two out of the three wooden combs from 15th-century deposits are decorated. One has an incised ring-and-dot pattem alternating with openwork (no. 1743, fig 249). The other (the largest of the wooden combs) is morę elaborately tooled with an inscription in black letter (no. 1745, fig 250). The inscription was carved against a ground enhanced with punching, which was a widely used ploy intended to conceal marks left on the surface of the wood by a gouge (Chris Green, pers. comm.). The comb was further embellished with rilling along the side of each end. The surface was subsequently painted yellow with a mixture of yellow ochrę and orpiment (yellow sulphide of arsenie), the latter pigment (identified by XRF) imparting a sparkle to the morę sombre hue of the earth colour (Thompson 1956, 175-7). Orpiment was imported, chiefly from Asia Minor, but it was relatively cheap compared with other exotic pigments such as indigo and azure. Thus in the Great Wardrobe Accounts for 1350-52, where orpiment was listed among the pigments reąuired for painting stream-ers and banners for the fleet of Edward III, it cost