File:Dress fastener (FindID 49698).jpg

English: Catch-piece from a dress fastener, made from copper alloy. The front edge is rectilinear, with a neatly cut rectangular slot measuring 12 x 4 mm. Behind the slot, the object has a small circular central hole; it then tapers to a point. At the point is a concave curve which looks like the remains of a second hole, in line with the first. Given this, it would seem likely that the object had broken to its present tapered shape, were it not for the fact that scoring lines can just be seen along the edge on both faces. Those on the upper face could be decoration, but as they appear on both faces they must presumably be constructional. On the reverse they clearly run right up to the concave point. There is a slight curve to the object, as if it fastened a narrow tube such as a sleeve or shoe. There is a similar example from Exeter (Allan 1984, no. 123) which was found in a mid to late 13th-century context; this is complete, triangular, and has a rectangular slot and single sewing hole, again suggesting that the Coddenham example is not broken.