plaque;
chopping-board;
food-tray;
culinary equipment
- Museum number
- 1891,1021.67
- Description
-
Whalebone plaque; sub-rectangular; confronted open-work horse heads in profile at the top; ring-and-dot and incised decoration; it may have served as a chopping-board or food-tray, rather than a form of smoothing board.
- Production date
- 9thC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 23.00 - 23.50 centimetres
-
Thickness: 0.90 centimetres
-
Width: 20 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Comment from Kidd, Haith & Ager 'Summary Catalogue' (draft MS)
Provenance:
As registration no. 1891,1021.9 (COCKS A.H. 1891. Catalogue of the Scandinavian Exhibition of Antiquities and other objects collected by Alfred Heneage Cocks, on view at the Royal Archaeological Institute, June 1891, 2nd ed. London, cat. no. 49); catalogue records a "human scalp", "various iron objects entirely perished" and states that most of the things were laid on a piece of felt, the other end of which was wrapped over them"
Published:
SMITH R.A. 1923. A Guide to the Anglo-Saxon and Foreign Teutonic Antiquities in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities. London, p. 163, fig. 216
PIJOÁN J. 1942. Summa Artis. Historia General del Arte vol VIII Arte bárbaro y prerrománico desde el siglo IV hasta el año 1000. Madrid, p. 32 fig. 36
YANAGI M. (ed) 1966. Sekai no Bijutsukan 4 The British Museum II. Tokyo, p. 171 no. 84, pl. 84
-
M.A. research by E. Isaksen at Universitet i Tromsø (2012) indicates that such plaques may have been used as serving platters at social gatherings, or possibly as chopping boards for food.
- Location
- On display (G41/dc25/sA)
- Exhibition history
-
2019-2020, 19 Oct-15 Mar, Fries Museum, Netherlands, Vikings and Frisians
- Acquisition date
- 1891
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1891,1021.67
