Cap hook
{{Short description|Decorative hat ornament}}
{{for|the uniform accessory|cap badge}}
File:Post Medieval dress hook (FindID 475640).jpg
File:Arthur Prince of Wales c 1500.jpg c. 1500 wearing a hat with an enseigne badge of Saint John the Baptist and two small rosette-shaped cap hooks]]
A cap hook is a decorative hat ornament fashionable from the Late Middle Ages through the Tudor period, used to pin up or decorate men's hat brims. Cap hooks were made of gold, silver, or silver-gilt base metal, and might be decorated with jewels or enamelling.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1017/S0003581500073777| issn = 0003-5815| volume = 82| pages = 157–196| last1 = Gaimster| first1 = David |author-link1=David Gaimster | last2 = Hayward| first2 = Maria| last3 = Mitchell| first3 = David| last4 = Parker| first4 = Karen| title = Tudor Silver-Gilt Dress-hooks: A New Class of Treasure Find in England| journal = The Antiquaries Journal| date = 2002| s2cid = 161564261| url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/div-classtitletudor-silver-gilt-dress-hooks-a-new-class-of-treasure-find-in-englanddiv/45C2FC277BA5F34DB28D3E87BF56AE0A| url-access = subscription}}{{cite web|url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=467476&partId=1&object=7775&page=1|author=British Museum|title=Cap hook|accessdate=2 February 2017}}
Cap hooks could be purely decorative or could carry religious or symbolic meaning. The latter form are called enseignes and may be an evolution of the medieval pilgrim badge.{{cite web|url=http://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/pages/object.aspx?oid=207626|author=Leeds Museums and Galleries|title=Cap hook|accessdate=2 February 2017}}
Usage
Study and identification
Cap hooks were little studied until the UK Treasure Act of 1996 required the examination and assessment of such small objects when made of precious metals. A seminal cross-disciplinary study of silver-gilt hooks in the Journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2002 differentiates cap hooks from other types of dress hooks. Cap hooks have a hook behind the ornament, where it is invisible in use. This makes distinguishing cap hooks from buttons or other types of ornaments in portraits difficult. Cap hooks are also elusive in written records, possibly because such ornaments were referred to as "buttons" regardless of their method of attachment.
File:Post medieval cap hook (FindID 240051).jpg|Silver-gilt rosette cap hook, ca. 1480–1580
File:Post medieval silver gild dress hook. (FindID 442786).jpg|Silver-gilt cap hook in the form of a bird, ca. 1485–1600
File:Post-medieval dress fitting (FindID 547946).jpg|Silver-gilt cap hook, hook now missing, post-Medieval
References
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External links
{{commonscat-inline|Cap hooks|lcfirst=yes}}
- [http://www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/pages/object.aspx?oid=207626 Silver gilt cap hook, Leeds Museums and Galleries]
- Cap hooks in the British Museum:
- [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1606107&partId=1&object=7775&page=1 Silver gilt cap hook], 2006,0301.1
- [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3325445&partId=1&object=7775&page=1 Silver gilt cap hook], 2010,8019.1
- [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=467476&partId=1&object=7775&page=1 Silver gilt cap hook] with glass cameo of Jupiter Ammon, 2001,0310.1