Balkan women used jewellery lavishly with their traditional costume. They fastened their clothes with decorative hooks, usually linked to each other by lengths of chain. These were worn across the front of the dress, across the back of the head linking the earrings to the head cloth, and down the front of the skirt.

This piece was worn on the breast. The central dome has two sharp hooks on the back which linked the front edges of a long sleeveless jacket. The two hooks at the ends of the chains were hooked to the head scarf, or into the costume somewhere on the shoulders, and the chains were left to hang loosely and artistically over the front of the body. It may have been worn alone, but more likely its owner added more clasps and chains down the front of her jacket, with a larger matching clasp at the waist. It was bought for £1 18s at the International Exhibition, London, 1872.

The niello work on this clasp is typical of Epirus. In the 19th century Epirus was still part of Albania, and this kind of niello work is always described as Albanian in 19th-century sources.