Buckle

Ornaments testifying to the social position and wealth of the wearer were significant in both male and female costumes of the Middle Ages. These were different kinds of appliqués sewn to clothes, buttons and brooches, and decorative elements on leather belts, pouches and scabbards, e.g., buckles, clasps and fittings. Buckles and clasps had a similar construction. They always consisted of a frame and a spike. Some buckles had also caps fixed with rivets to belt straps. Frames of medieval buckles took different shapes and had various decorations. The most common were ones with a circular frame, both iron and from alloys of non-ferrous metals, decorated with floral ornamentation, geometric, with inscription in Latin and sometimes openwork. Circular silver buckle and other late Gothic silver jewellery were found during archaeological research in Szczecin; it was in a metal vessel, hidden under the floor of one of the tenement houses at Targ Rybny. It is distinguished by decoration in the filigree technique. It is one of the goldsmithing techniques involving decorating the surface of an object with thin gold and silver wires, sometimes twisted around their axis, forming various patterns.

Małgorzata Peszko