Greek Metalwork: Bronze Dress Pin

Inv. No.: 86.011
Provenance: Greece
Date: c. 7th-6th century BC
Diameter: 9mm (maximum)
Length: 85mm
 
Cottier-Angeli Gift.

A bronze dress pin, broken about half-way along the length of the shaft. The shaft is spherical in cross section. The top end is intact and consists of a ball enclosed between two fine rings, another section of shaft, and, at the very end, a disc surmounted by a rounded knob with a pointed top. The disc and ball have similar diameters. The extant parts of the pin are in good condition and the piece has a greenish patina.

Function:
Used for pinning together at the shoulders the two sides of the peplos, a garment made from a rectangular piece of woollen cloth. Surviving examples of bronze dress pins are usually found in funerary contexts.

Manufacture:
This piece was probably made using the lost-wax method of casting.

Bibliography:
Boardman, J., Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period, a Handbook, London, Thames and Hudson, 1978, 67-68 (the peplos).

Coldstream, J. N., Geometric Greece, London, Methuen, 1979, especially 58, 83-84.

Hampe, R. and E. Simon, The Birth of Greek Art: From the Mycenaean to the Archaic Period, New York, Oxford University Press, 1981, 99-111.

Jacobsthal, P., Greek Pins and their Connexions with Europe and Asia, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956, especially 3-7, 93-119.

Comparanda:
Coldstream, J. N., Geometric Greece, London, Methuen, 1979, Fig. 27, a and b.

Hampe, R. and E. Simon, The Birth of Greek Art: From the Mycenaean to the Archaic Period, New York, Oxford University Press, 1981, Figs. 147, 148.

Jacobsthal, P., Greek Pins and their Connexions with Europe and Asia, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956, Fig. 12 (Geometric pins with similar elements).