An aiguillette, aguillette or aiglet (from French aiguille "needle") is a decorative tag or tip for a cord or ribbon,[1] usually of gold and sometimes set with gemstones or enameled. Small cords and ribbon bows tipped with pairs of aiguilettes were fashionable ornaments in the 16th and early 17th centuries.[2]
In contemporary military and civil uniforms, an aiguillette is an ornamental braided cord with a similar metal tip, derived from armor fastenings, and the plastic or metal aglet on a shoe lace is also a direct descendant.
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Aiguillettes were made in sets, and might be of silver, silver-gilt, or gold.[2]
Surviving portraits show that aiguillettes could be functional or purely decorative, though many were used to "close" seams and slashes[2] that are not always apparent on dark garments in portraits. They were made in matched sets and were worn in masses. The Day Book of the Wardrobe of Robes of Elizabeth I of England records items given and received into storage, including details of buttons and aiguillettes lost from the Queen's clothing:
Lost the 2 of February ... [1582] 1 bunsh of small gold tagges or aglettes from a gowne of black satten at Sittingbourne parcell [part] of uppon the same gowne 193 bunshes[4]
Elizabeth's aiguillettes were variously enameled with white, red, black, blue, and purple details or set with diamonds, garnets, rubies, and pearls[2][5]; those of Anne of Denmark in the early years of the 17th century were larger, shaped in triangles and pyramids. One set of 24 were made three-sided, with "27 diamonds in the sides and one in the top", for a total of 642 diamonds in the set.[2]
 The future Edward VI of England wears a hat and gown trimmed with pairs of aiguillettes, 1538 |
 Mary Nevill and her son, Gregory Fiennes, Baron Dacre wear gowns decorated with gold aiguilettes, 1559 |
 Elizabeth of Valois, Queen of Spain, wears rose ribbons tipped with large aiguillettes set with pearls, c. 1560s |
 Charles I of England wears a doublet and hose with ribbon points tipped with aiguillettes, 1630s |
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