Bodkin

Bodkins of this type made from precious and base metals, were a necessary item of equipment for both men and women and were used for threading and rethreading ribbons, cords, laces and drawstrings. Many were carried about the person in a small case for general use and emergency repairs. They were frequently chased and engraved with simple designs, sometimes incorporating the owner's initials, and often terminated in an ear-spoon or snuff-spoon. Silver bodkins were made by specialist small-ware silversmiths and were commonly retailed by petty-chapmen and other itinerant salesmen of fancy goods. Some seem to have been exchanged as a bethrothal or New Year's gift. According to William Harrison (1570), 'Women's maskes, Buskes, Mufs, Fanns, Perewigs and Bodkins were first devised and used in Italy by Curtezans, and from thence brought into France and there received of the best sort for gallant ornaments, & from the thence they came into England. (f96/[19]). Bodkins were also worn in the hair or tucked behind the ear, the head decorated with a perforation from which a precious stone, bead, or pearl was attached. As a dress accessory they appear in Dutch records from the 17th century and the 'hoofdnaald' often occurs in combination with the 'diadem cap' hairpiece and was particularly fashionable between 1610 and 1630. According to Jan Baart's Opgravigen in Amsterdam, 1976, 'the 'hoofdnaald' is worn on the left as well as the right of the forehead' and continued to be used in regional and peasant dress until the 20th century - its position on the forehead used to denote marital status, viz., left for spinsters and right for married women.