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Identifying dress hooks and fasteners

Hooked tags, dress hooks, and hook-and-eye pairs from vanished clothing.

Cloth rots; fasteners remain. Anglo-Saxon hooked tags are small triangular or circular plates with a hook and attachment holes. Tudor dress hooks can be splendid — cast, gilded, filigree-fronted. Humbler wire hook-and-eye pairs span centuries and still close garments today.

Attachment tells function: sewing holes or loops on one edge, the hook opposing them. Distinguish from fishing hooks (barbed, no attachment plate) and chain hooks (heavier). Gilding, engraving, and openwork place the finer pieces in fashionable wardrobes and datable styles.

Record dimensions, metal, gilding traces, and hook wear. These small objects often qualify for treasure processes when gold or silver — check before cleaning. Describe ornament concretely; hooked tags especially are well-published and reward comparison.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on jewellery

Dating medieval brooches — Form, pin, and section are your clues.

Identifying brooch and fibula types — Spring, bow, and catch.

Identifying finger rings — Hoop, shoulders, and bezel.

Identifying beads — Material, perforation, and wear.

Identifying cameos and intaglios — Carved in relief or sunk.

Identifying earrings — Hoops, pendants, and wires from four thousand years of pierced ears.

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