✅ SOLVED Viking/Medieval Wood Plaque Identification Help!

[garandguy56]

Hello all!

I picked this up a few years ago and I am completely stumped on what it is!

This is the story I received from the antique dealer: The panel was originally raised from the sea bed in the 1950's from a supposed Medieval shipwreck east of England in the north sea. The panel was soaked in preservation fluid for sometime for protection and was in the possession of the antique dealer for decades. From what he was told, the iron nail type could date the piece anywhere from the 13th to 16th centuries. The piece measures 22.4" x 6.8" x 1.7"

Please let me know your thoughts on the piece including originality, possible age and culture it could have come from. I greatly appreciate any assistance you would be able to lend me.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[CRUSADER]

Very crude & very convincing. Looks like oak & seems to fit a ship scenario - panel of the Captain's room or officers dining room. Might be a 'door panel'.

I have no wood carving experience but my gut makes me think 17th C, based on the mermaid image. Medieval mermaids in wood are done (& the image in the UK has been around since the 11th C), but I think you can count out the Viking period(8th -11th C).(pretty sure they were not in their mythology??)

More info on the other items recovered from that wreck will help, go back & ask what else was found?

 

[CRUSADER]

Mermaids | Tudor stuff: Tudor history from the heart of England
The above 17th C image has similar elements to yours.

A central 'Vase' with the Mermaid sucking from the object in the vase, which maybe 'fruit' or maybe a 'fountain of water'? There may have been a scallop shell in the lower damaged section??

When I first saw the mermaid sucking from something like a vase object, I immediately thought of a Cornucopia. 'an image associated with female fertility. The picture is in a style known as ‘arabesque’ – popular in the Elizabethan period (so could also be 1500s) and there is an idea that it may have been completed by a Flemish or German artist.'

 

[surf]

Hello garandguy,

Welcome to the TNet, and thanks for sharing with us these, all to brief photos, and background. T'was this dealer in Cornwall by chance? I'd wanna be asking a lot more questions of that dealer, me. Sorry, I cannot advise on the nail heads. Do you know what preservative was used? Have you waltzed it by the Museum folk to get additional perspective?

It has taken me repeated viewings to try and absorb the details visible, and those obscured by time and deterioration. Am i seeing a center plaque / mirror with carved letters or symbols?

Am I seeing a figure rising like smoke from the figure on the left's thumb / mouth / pipe?

Mucho Mermaid legend around the British Isles, and any number of ancient, and more modern civilizations, the world over, for that matter.

Are you familiar with the Mermaid Chair in St. Senara Church in Zennor?

Origins of The Mermaid of Zennor​

I hope you will add some more photos of this magnificent piece, please. Does that ploughed channel circumnavigate the piece?

Ireland In Ruins​

 

[garandguy56]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for your help. I live in Washington DC yet I'm not entirely sure my best bet with who would help me the most.

The trough is present on both the left and right side of the piece and is about 1/2" deep.

What is fascinating is that it appears the wood is a two piece construction (see below; the color striations across it is the glare from the sun and my windows)

 

[Panache]

Looks like a hamburger. Don't think it is but that is what I thought when I first looked.

 

[Frankyg]

The face has a very Celtic look to it, Ireland or North Wales.

 

[surf]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for your help. I live in Washington DC yet I'm not entirely sure my best bet with who would help me the most.

The trough is present on both the left and right side of the piece and is about 1/2" deep.

What is fascinating is that it appears the wood is a two piece construction (see below; the color striations across it is the glare from the sun and my windows)
View attachment 866328View attachment 866327

Welcome back garandguy,

The "trough" is a groove that is consistent with panels joined with a spline. Would have made a "floating" joint. I do not know if this was a common ship's joinery method, though I suspect so.

The panel is actually of three pieces, to create a balanced panel. Quite literally ply-wood.

What about the letters / symbols on that center plaque?

Is there any more back story that you can provide?

Irish Rain

 

[garandguy56]

Thanks Surf! I looked over the piece carefully and they just appear to be circles as a sort of design. How much would someone value this piece to be?

 

[CRUSADER]

Thanks Surf! I looked over the piece carefully and they just appear to be circles as a sort of design. How much would someone value this piece to be?

No point guessing a value without knowing what you have.

 

[Frankyg]

Hi Grandad,
I think this piece should be in a museum. If it was mine I would send photographs and measurements to the British Museum. They will give an opinion on it free of charge. My next step would be Christies or Sothebys auction houses in London.

 

[DCMatt]

16th Century Pair Of Oak Romayne Panels





There are lots of pics of examples of these types of furniture panels on the internet. Google "Romayne oak". Many of them are very similar in size to your piece.

DCMatt

 

[garandguy56]

I contacted the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the curator of the architectural and furniture department offered the following opinion:

"From what remains visible on your panel, I read the design as a
renaissance-derived grotesque with a central vertical axis. These were popular
from about 1500 and into the 17th century in most decorative media, and were
generally based on numerous (endlessly inventive) prints produced in Italy and
all the major printing centres, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands. The
use of oak suggests a NW European origin, possibly Britain but Netherlands,
northern Germany and France are also possible. The design is so worn that its
not easy to guess at, but the elements that I see suggest to me a dating of
about 1520-1560, perhaps France. Our interior porch, which you can see online
with the link below, is made up of panels of a similar size which on the third
tier (from the ground) show the same vigorous version of renaissance motifs that
I think I discern on yours:

Interior porch | V&A Search the Collections

The size of your panel perhaps indicates interior architectural panelling rather
than furniture. Its a fairly standard size for this period I think."