Post Medieval Bronze Vanitas Relief with Skull and Crossed Bones

A rare complete and undamaged rectangular plaque bearing raised, moulded text on the obverse; with hatched three horizontal bars and two pelletted between five registers, framing the letters of the alphabet '+ABCDE / FGHIKL / MN[reversed]OPq / RSTVW / +Y[Z]'; tree with berries on a hatched field to the reverse. 26.8 grams, 53 mm



Found whilst searching with a metal detector near Kniveton, Derbyshire Dales, UK. Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.WMID-341C6A.

The letter 'U' has been omitted from the alphabet, as is common with such objects, as has the letter 'J', suggesting that the book was produced prior to the publication of Charles Butler's English Grammar (1633), which first distinguished between I and J. The letter Z is reversed. Hornbooks were employed as learning aids and commonly made from paper mounted onto wood, together with a transparent sheet of horn. Smaller, more portable lead-alloy examples such as this one are generally believed to have been mass-produced, whilst still falling within the genre of 'hornbooks'.

Each with a shallow circular bowl and sturdy stem, six with a stamped X-motif within pelletted border to the bowl, and two with three stamped rosettes above letters(?). 839 grams total, 16.5 cm



Acquired in the Netherlands in the 1990s. Ex Cambridgeshire, UK, gentleman.

Irregular piriform block with polished surface, one flat face. 3.12 kg, 21.9 cm



Ex Robert Evans collection, circa 2000. From the private collection of a Somerset gentleman.