Casgliadau Arlein

Dress hook, made of gilded silver. It consists of a trefoil-shaped front part with a small hook at the bottom; the attachment bar/bar loop is missing from the back. The trefoil element is decorated with applied filigree patterning.

The trefoil-shaped thin back-plate is cut from a sheet, to which the flattened base of a hook has been soldered on the reverse. The edges of the backing plate have been punched to create cusps. Each petal supports a hollow hemisphere, each bearing three small filigree circlets around a raised silver pellet. A centrally placed hole would once have supported a central decorative motif, often a flower with large central bead (both now missing). Gilding does not extend along the full length to the hook and is partial on the back.