Busk (corsetry)

A busk (also spelled busque) is a rigid element of a corset at the centre front of the garment.

They were typically made of wood, ivory, or bone slipped into a pocket and tied in place with a lace called the busk point.

[3] These busks were often carved and decorated, or inscribed with messages, and were popular gifts from men to women during courtship.

Busks made from whale baleen first appear in the wardrobe accounts of Elizabeth I in the 1580s.

It was made of two long pieces of steel, one with loops and the other with posts, that functioned in the same way as hook and eye fastenings or buttons on a garment.