Wooden Spoon with Cross

Comprising a rectangular handle with hole for suspension supporting a quatrefoil reservoir with central filling tube, outer ring with seven radiating arms and interstitial hollow lobes; basal ring to underside. 1.53 kg, 29 cm



Mr F.D. collection, acquired on the European art market, 1975 to present. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

A Tudor or Stuart period lead-alloy 'hornbook': incomplete rectangular plaque with small rectangular handle; bearing raised, moulded text on the obverse with hatched forms between four registers, which frame the letters of the alphabet 'ABCDE/FG[reversed]HIKL/MNOPq/RST[VW]XYZ'; low-relief octofoil in centre to the reverse. 51 grams, 75 mm



Found Yorkshire, UK. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

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'. Interestingly, some scholars have argued that the mistakes and inconsistencies found on lead examples rendered them less effective learning tools, used as children's toys in families with low levels of literacy, or possibly serving as dolls' accessories.

Depicting Christ dressed in a long purple tunica talaris embroidered with long central vertical gold clavi (stripes) and appliques on the cuffs and around the neck; the dress fastened at the waist by a rope; crowned with thorns and holding an olive branch in his hand; Greek inscription 'Ο ΕΛΚOΜΕΝΟΣ' (= the One who came [in the Name of God]), on the background, and three letters inside the nimbus representing the continuous divine self-existence of Christ as God ('O ѾN' = The Only One who always exists); tempera on wood. 303 grams, 19 x 15 cm



Property of a London, UK, gentleman collector. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, is here represented before his Crucifixion. The icon is intended to depict the humility of Christ, ready to be raised on the cross, bringing peace to the humanity (olive branch). The purple robe represents the royalty of Christ, who nevertheless, despite being King of the Universe, humbles himself for the salvation of mankind.