Most 17th-century clothing was heavily laced, and a metal aglet would have been fastened to the ends of laces to enable easy threading. A modern corollary for this object is the plastic tip that is fitted on the ends of shoelaces and that serves to keep the lace ends from fraying.

Hundreds of aglets have been excavated from James Fort. All but this silver one, excavated from Pit 3, are copper alloy. This 38 mm long aglet is decorated with stars in a scale pattern.