Copper-alloy scissors with elaborate handle, decorated with heart-shaped motifs. Their excellent state of preservation gives us the rare opportunity to examine an everyday life object of this period.
Shears of copper-alloy or iron were in use throughout the Medieval period in Europe, but true scissors, where the blades are pressed together by opposite motion of the handles, were unknown in western Europe before Medieval times. The Setúbal altarpiece of the early 16th century has an early image of a pair of true scissors. The blades of this pair look more like those of shears, although the opposite action is present.
