Buckle

Silver buttons and clasps were typical of 14th - 15th-century costume ornaments, consisting of a spike and a decorative frame in the shape of a quadrilateral, a circle, a six- or eight-pointed star, or a rosette (the so-called multi-lobed clasps). A silver rosette clasp was discovered together with other costume ornaments and Pomeranian coins in Szczecin in 1999 during excavations in Podzamcze. The researchers determined the time of the ornament's origin to be the second half of the 14th and early 15th centuries. At that time, in the homes of residents of Hanseatic cities, such as wealthy Lübeck, nearby Stralsund, and Szczecin, silver products, including costume ornaments, were not uncommon. The gilded rosette clasp was made, among other things, by soldering. The joining of metals with a low melting point was known in antiquity. In this technique, blowers or bellows were used, through which the flame was directed onto the object to be soldered. Brazing methods improved in the Middle Ages. Examples of soldering jewellery, costume ornaments, book fittings or horse harness components are known from that period.

Małgorzata Peszko