Clasps and Plaques from metal detecting

Having finished the end-of-year editing (four books all at once) and some translation work, can at last get back to my own stuff, this includes writing up a metal detectorists collection that was recently sold online, apparently substantially intact. It's an eye-opener (more of that later). There were a couple of lots containing items that the PAS had not seen(?) and nobody - including the dealer, had identified. I tried my Twitter followers, but they weren't very forthcoming. Anyway, I got there myself and thought I'd put the results down here for future reference. 

     Live Auctioneers

1) "clasps" 

Sold as part of a mixed group together with some flimsy book clasps (or book-clasp like things, could be casket hasps too) I'm looking at the broad rectangular plates with three or four rectangular slots. My first thought was some kind of strap-tightener (on analogy with the fittings of the lanyards of a tent)? It later turned out that they are probably a simple form of neck-stock clasp (early 18th - late 19 century) . In use, it'd look like this: 'Getting Dressed in the 18th Century - Men' National Museums Liverpool  Dec 15, 2023.

          Live Auctioneers        

2) "plaques" 

Unfortunately we do not know what the backs look like (dealers font bother showing you all the information, there are enough buyers who'll indiscriminately buy any old crap). Archaeo-Twitter did not know, but then I found a Dutch metal detecting site that did. It lists similar items as “Blinker or saddle brass [mounts]” and dates them to the end 19th - begin 20th century". Then I found one on eBay and had some very pleasant correspondence with the seller (westcountryponies2011). in this case some old plaques had been removed from the harness and remounted at some time quite a while ago on a new strap. 

Prepper website

It turns out that there is rather more to male neckware than one might have thought (here, here, and here) and one might ask what we have lost by the examples of clasps sold here not being recorded. Who wore these, where and when? Are they found in fields, as worn by... well, who? Ploughboys? In both of these cases the items concerned fall outside the 300-year limit of PAS recording. And yet... PAS has 16 records of them, almost all the mappable ones from the coastal regions of SE England, and none of them of the type sold here.  There seem to be none in the totally useless UKDF 'Database'.