If we examine the dresses of both sexes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we shall find that ties were used to a great extent instead of buttons, and they were provided with metal tags of an ornamental character called aiglets, or, more properly, aiguillettes. In many cases the chief object of the ribbons which they adorned was that of embellishment, for as many as a dozen or more might be found round one knee. Sometimes the tags were in the form of little figures, and in the “Taming of the Shrew” it is said of Petruchio that if you gave him gold enough any one “might marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby.”
Fig. 95.—A silk lace with simple metal tags.
Fig. 96.—Ornamental metal tags on a velvet neck ribbon.
Of recent years the velvet ribbons which ladies have worn round their necks have been provided in like manner with little tags (see Figure [96]), though the fashion does not seem to have developed again to any very great extent.
The safety-pin is an object which may well occupy our attention for a moment. As we knew it when we were children, it was merely a piece of wire that had been pointed at one end and bent into the required shape. (See Figure [97].)