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Cosmetic implements

The medieval person’s concem with appearance extended beyond coiffure, clothing and jewellery. The rangę of cosmetic implements comprising various types of tweezers, toothpicks and ear-scoops show that the shape of the eyebrows, hairline, and beard, and cleanliness of nails, teeth and ears also received attention. This is under-lined by literary descriptions; the Carpenter’s wife in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales plucked and darkened her eyebrows (The Miller’s Tale, Cawley 1975, 87, lines 3245-6), while the daugh-ters of the Knight of La Tour Landry were wamed against indulging in such vanities (Corson 1972, 79). A few toiletry articles, particularly tweezers, served a single purpose but others combined a dual function. Thus earscoops were freąuently teamed with toothpicks or with tweezers and eyen, it appears, with pens (Ramsay, in Alexander and Binski 1987, 384 no. 424). Sets were also produced, which were presumably carried in a pouch or etui sińce no method of attaching them to a girdle was included in their design. Such cosmetic tools and sets were not a new introduction, for similar implements had been used in Britain from at least the late Iron Age. The functions remained the same, but the form of the implements was modified, which generally enables medieval examples to be dis-tinguished from their forbears.

Like so many medieval accessories, copper and its alloys (bronze, brass and gunmetal) appear to have been customary for cosmetic implements in everyday use in 13th- and 14th-century London. These metals were apparently used indiscrimi-nately, some implements and sets combining two different metals (nos. 1755 & 1756). Bonę was also used but to a much lesser extent.

Sets

Cosmetic sets were found in deposits of the late-13th and 14th centuries (ceramic phases 9 and 11). They comprise three implements - a pair of tweezers, earscoop, and toothpick, which were riveted together at one end. The tweezers, which were madę from two strips of metal sol-dered together at one end, are always the longest implement in the set, being roughly twice the length of the other two, which are placed on either side and fit neatly beside the arms of the tweezers extending close to the point where they divide. This was a new design feature of cosmetic sets produced in the late-medieval period and would have enabled them to fit into narrow etuis, similar to needlecases, rather than hanging freely from a chatelaine. The earscoops are similar in each set, and are fiat rather than dished, but the toothpick could take at least three different forms.

The most common and simplest form of toothpick, when it was used in a set, was for the pick to taper to a point. It is represented by two exam-ples from DUA excavations (no. 1755, fig 251 & no. 1757) and a further two in the Museum of London’s collection (MoL acc. nos. 80.70/17 & 85.110/4). Another variation was for the pick to be shaped like a miniaturę sickle (MoL acc. no. 85.241/6), although nonę of this type has yet been recovered from controlled excavations in London. A third and morę complex form is bifurcated with both ends differently shaped, one curving to a point and the other fiat, thereby making it into a morę versatile tool (no. 1756, fig 251). Part of a cosmetic set with a similar-shaped toothpick was recovered from the site of Woodperry, Oxford-shire, in the 1840s QW 1846, 120, fig 9), and another from the deserted medieval settlement at Lyveden, Northamptonshire, which, like the Woodperry set, has lost its earscoop (Steane and Bryant 1975, 114, fig 43 no. 49).

1755    BWB83 acc. no. 222 (context 289) ceramic phase 9 fig 251

Copper/brass (AML) with lead/tin solder (MLC); the earscoop and toothpick are similarly decorated on the outside at the rivet end and have been finished on both sides with a file; the ends of the tweezers are bevelled on the outside; 1 of tweezers 67mm; 1 of earscoop 33mm; 1 of toothpick 26mm.

1756    BWB83 2760 (361) 11 fig 251 Brass/copper (AML) with lead/tin solder; one arm of the tweezers is broken off; the toothpick is bifurcated