Pin

Set of brass pins (166 in total). A collection of hand-made brass pins, arranged and mounted on a piece of card, 16th-18th century, 180 in all. The smallest types of pins were used for attaching pieces of paper together, as we would today with staples or paper clips. The longer types of pins were for fastening clothing. In a time before poppers, safety pins and zips, pins were used to fasten clothing, fix on detachable sleeves etc. The term ‘pin money’ refers to the money given to women to buy pins. Pins were also given as New Year gifts. Around 2000 children were involved in the manufacture of pins in 16th-century London. They had the advantage of having small, dexterous fingers and being cheap labour for mass-production. To make pins, copper wire was fed through a ‘draw plate’ (a metal plate with holes of decreasing size in it). Each time the wire was drawn through, it would be pulled through a smaller hole until it was thin enough. Then the wire would be cut into small lengths for the individual pins. The pins would be sharpened by strapping them to a piece of bone called a pinner’s bone and filing them sharp at one end. The spiral end would then be soldered on the blunt end. *Use these pins with the pinner’s bone to demonstrate how they were made*