410 (15)

383

Cosmetic Sets

253 Earscoop/tweezers (1:1)

Tweezers

Only two pairs of simple tweezers dating to the period covered by this survey have been re-covered from recent excavations in the City. Tliis suggests that double-ended implements and cosmetic sets were morę popular as well as morę practical. A pair of tweezers from an early 13th-century deposit is madę from copper sheeting, which was partly slit, folded double and soldered at the middle of the shank, leaving two short arms at the wider end, while the opposite end was bent into a loop which could have served as an ear-scoop (no. 1778 fig 253). This is the earliest dated example from London of tweezers being madę from sheeting folded in this manner. The other pair of tweezers is incomplete but traces of solder suggest that it could have been madę in a similar way.

Medieval tweezers found on other English

sites were usually madę by folding a narrow strip of sheeting double (AR Goodall 1981, 65), which was also a Romano-British method. These tweezers are, therefore, not always easy to recognise as medieval unless they come from deposits lacking residual materiał, or are decorated with punched triangles typical of the medieval metal-worker, as can be seen on examples from Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire (Lethbridge and Tebbutt 1951, 50-1, fig 1, no. 4) and Northampton (Oak-ley 1979, fig 110 nos. 75 & 76).

Madę from sheet metal folded down one side and slit at the lower end; opposite side soldered above the arm opening:

1778    BIG82 acc. no. 2446 (context 3212) ceramic phase 7 fig 253

Copper (AML); the ends of the arms are angled inwards; hooked upper end; 1 51mm.

1779    BWB83 4611 (286) 11

Copper alloy; part of one arm with the end bevelled on the outside; surviving 1 48mm.