403 (10)

376

Dress Accessońes

only 6d per lb (Staniland 1986, 240). The painting and gilding of boxwood combs was forbidden among craftsmen working in Paris in 1324 sińce it was considered to be harmful to the hair (de Lespinasse 1892, 672). This was presumably because the colour was liable to flake off during use, and it can be seen as a wise precaution sińce the arsenie content of certain paints, particularly orpiment as used on the Swan-Lane comb, could eventually be fatal. This hazard was to some extent circumvented on the painted London comb sińce only the solid zonę was coloured leaving the teeth plain.

The inscription on the comb, vous byen, is a lover’s motto or posy. The missing words have yet to be established, but it may be compared with the posy nu si byen, which occurs on the inside of contemporary gold finger-rings (Alexander and Binski 1987, 487 no. 658), and je le done pour bien on a boxwood comb possibly of late 14th-century datę (Pinto 1952, 175-6 no. 10). The sentimental value of the comb is further emphasised by score marks or keying down the broken section of the comb, which suggest that it may have been repaired, but not very successful-ly in the long term sińce the fracture recurred before it was finally discarded.

Another wooden comb found beside the Thames in London, which is in private ownership, must have come from the same workshop as the previous example sińce it is stylistically so simi-lar. It is inscribed on both faces with the posy amon placet against a punched background and has an oakleaf carved between the words. No tracę of paint remains but this is not an unex-pected consequence of long-term burial in water-logged conditions.

Ivory

1754 BC72 acc. no. 3817 (context 89) ceramic phase 11 fig 249

Fragment with a convex end, guidelines for fine teeth on both faces and for coarse teeth on only (?)one face; h 70mm; 8 fine : 4 coarse teeth per lOmm.

Ivory was perhaps the most highly prized materiał used for combs in medieval England. Elephant ivory or walrus ivory was used according to what was available. Written sources indicate that by the 13th century the best ąuality ivory combs were purchased abroad, particularly in Paris. Thus, among various hmiry articles procured for Edward I in Paris in 1278, were two combs of ivory for a sum of 32s 6d (Lysons 1814, 308). The pńce of these combs may be compared with the value of 4d placed on four combs of boxwood in a haberdasheris shop in London in 1378 (Riley 1868, 422), and that of 9s for a silver liturgical comb with gilded decoration, which was included in an inventory of vestments and church furniture compiled for St Paufs cathedral in 1245 (Sparrow-Simpson 1887, 468).

Double-sided combs of wory from recent London excavations display nonę of the figurative ornament familiar from ecclesiastical pieces and are correspondingly much thinner in section. Part of a plain wory comb was recovered from a lOth-century pit (Pritchard fortheoming, fig 3.82), while another from a late 14th-century deposit (ceramic phase 11) is distinctive for its thin cross-section and convex end (no. 1754, fig 249). This latter feature helps to distinguish it from smali ivory combs of the two succeeding centuries, which are usually characterised by an elongated H-profile (MacGregor 1983, 262).