Antique jewelry glossary

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Dress pin

A long (15-20cm), straight or tapering pin used to fasten a garment; sometimes in the form of a 'toggle-pin'.

Some examples of Sumerian Jewelry, c. 2500 BC, were made of gold, silver or electrum, in attenuated form, with one end pointed and the other ornamented with a bead of cornelian or lapis lazuli capped with gold.

Egyptian examples from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2200 BC - 1550 BC), and Late Bronze Age (1550 BC - 1200 BC) were divided midway by a hole from one side of which extended the attenuated smooth pin and from the other side a twisted or ornamented straight stem handle; the method of use involved passing the pin twice through the garment, and then fastening it with string tied through the hole and looped a few times around the two exposed ends. The name 'toggle-pin' was applied by Sir Flinders Petrie, the noted English archeologist.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson