Lucky Eddie
Sr. Member
Anyone know the history of this piece?
What I do know is this.
It has been in my family now for 4 or 5 generations (My Great Great grandmothers) and originated in England.
The surviving family knowledge went like this.
My grandmother emigrated to Australia from England in 1901.
Her grandmother as a child was an indentured servant in a manor house for most of her life.
In that house, above a fire place & hearth, hung on a silken chord was a green hunting horn.
Great Great Grandmothers job included dusting, with a feather duster.
The old man who owned the Manor house passed away - and the house and contents were to be auctioned, proceeeds to be split between the surviving family heirs.
While cleaning the house prior to auction my great great grandmother was in her early teens and happened to dust the green hunting horn - during which, the fragile silken chord weakened from years of rising heat from the fireplace, broke.
The green hunting horn, fell to the brick hearth - and broke / shattered.
Hidden (secreted within) inside this green hunting horn, was the carved cow horn piece you see below.
The Lady of the house came to investigate the sound of the breaking horn and was rather annoyed. She claimed she never liked the hunting horn anyway and her deceased father obtained it at an auction - she instructed my great great grandmother to keep the piece from within as a parting "gift" for her service which was likely coming to an end with the sale of the house.
Thus this piece of carved cow horn history of unknown age and prevenance, has remained within my family ever since.
I always romanticized that it was associated with the Holy Grail Romances of the middle ages.
I took a series of photos all around and pieced them together roughly with MS paint to get an all round story board of the carvings to see if they relate a particular story or period of time in history?
I see things like St George slaying the dragoon, I see the 7 headed "beast of revelations" - I see our lady of Blind Justice standing over a wolf with a sword ready to defeat evil.
I see a one eyed king?... (King Harold?) (In the Sun representation - the veiled face "moon" being his queen)?
There sat Harold,
on his horse.
his hawk in his hand,
and an arrow in his eye!
Who is the saracen type head, carved in bass relief style - totally different to the rest of the carving style?
What about the rest of you - anyone have any ideas what story/s are represented here? - why the anchient piece spent so long secreted within a hunting horn, hung over a mantlepiece?
Why was it secreted - to hide it from the inquisition?
Most such carvings (scrimshaw) I have seen of later periods, are maritime scenes done into ivory whales tooth / Walrus tooth - not cow horn.
I've not ever been able to find out any details - my parent once on a trip to England in the 1970's took it to the London Museum of Mankind - who weren't particularly interested and thought maybe it originatyed in eastern europe somewhere?
Could it represent Arthurian legend? Lancelot & Guenevere?, what about King Richard the Lionheart - didn't he have a Loyal Saracen friend when he returned from the crusades?
That's about as much as I know! Overall length is about 4 inches and average diameter about 2 inches.
Who knows - maybe it's a treasure map story of some kind?
It seems to be involved with the dynasty of a king, queen and family and church.
Could it be masonic/templar in origin - and referring to the preservation of Christs titular bloodline, as is preserved to this day by the Prieurre de Sion?
I've wondered about this piece now for almost 50 years.
If it was a cup at any period - it may have had maybe a wooden insert as a base sealed with wax or something - In all the time We've had it - it never had any bottom - more like it might have been a decorative ceremonial rolled cloth napkin holder for placement on the table?
Anyone?
Cheers
What I do know is this.
It has been in my family now for 4 or 5 generations (My Great Great grandmothers) and originated in England.
The surviving family knowledge went like this.
My grandmother emigrated to Australia from England in 1901.
Her grandmother as a child was an indentured servant in a manor house for most of her life.
In that house, above a fire place & hearth, hung on a silken chord was a green hunting horn.
Great Great Grandmothers job included dusting, with a feather duster.
The old man who owned the Manor house passed away - and the house and contents were to be auctioned, proceeeds to be split between the surviving family heirs.
While cleaning the house prior to auction my great great grandmother was in her early teens and happened to dust the green hunting horn - during which, the fragile silken chord weakened from years of rising heat from the fireplace, broke.
The green hunting horn, fell to the brick hearth - and broke / shattered.
Hidden (secreted within) inside this green hunting horn, was the carved cow horn piece you see below.
The Lady of the house came to investigate the sound of the breaking horn and was rather annoyed. She claimed she never liked the hunting horn anyway and her deceased father obtained it at an auction - she instructed my great great grandmother to keep the piece from within as a parting "gift" for her service which was likely coming to an end with the sale of the house.
Thus this piece of carved cow horn history of unknown age and prevenance, has remained within my family ever since.
I always romanticized that it was associated with the Holy Grail Romances of the middle ages.
I took a series of photos all around and pieced them together roughly with MS paint to get an all round story board of the carvings to see if they relate a particular story or period of time in history?
I see things like St George slaying the dragoon, I see the 7 headed "beast of revelations" - I see our lady of Blind Justice standing over a wolf with a sword ready to defeat evil.
I see a one eyed king?... (King Harold?) (In the Sun representation - the veiled face "moon" being his queen)?
There sat Harold,
on his horse.
his hawk in his hand,
and an arrow in his eye!
Who is the saracen type head, carved in bass relief style - totally different to the rest of the carving style?
What about the rest of you - anyone have any ideas what story/s are represented here? - why the anchient piece spent so long secreted within a hunting horn, hung over a mantlepiece?
Why was it secreted - to hide it from the inquisition?
Most such carvings (scrimshaw) I have seen of later periods, are maritime scenes done into ivory whales tooth / Walrus tooth - not cow horn.
I've not ever been able to find out any details - my parent once on a trip to England in the 1970's took it to the London Museum of Mankind - who weren't particularly interested and thought maybe it originatyed in eastern europe somewhere?
Could it represent Arthurian legend? Lancelot & Guenevere?, what about King Richard the Lionheart - didn't he have a Loyal Saracen friend when he returned from the crusades?
That's about as much as I know! Overall length is about 4 inches and average diameter about 2 inches.
Who knows - maybe it's a treasure map story of some kind?
It seems to be involved with the dynasty of a king, queen and family and church.
Could it be masonic/templar in origin - and referring to the preservation of Christs titular bloodline, as is preserved to this day by the Prieurre de Sion?
I've wondered about this piece now for almost 50 years.
If it was a cup at any period - it may have had maybe a wooden insert as a base sealed with wax or something - In all the time We've had it - it never had any bottom - more like it might have been a decorative ceremonial rolled cloth napkin holder for placement on the table?
Anyone?
Cheers
) and despite the discoloration, the handiwork is exceptional and the composition -- which has this great Picasso quality -- can't be beat. Get a museum to take a second look. Try the Hull Museum in England. Good people and I've sent a client there before:
