POST MEDIEVAL TOY

1500

An incomplete lead or lead alloy inscribed tablet, a miniature horn book showing the alphabet of the Late Mediveal to Post Medieval Period, dating to AD 1500 - AD 1700.Around 75% of the hornbook is present, with the base and handle missing.The tablet is sub rectangular and has been broken in the bottom right corner on the obverse, broken presumably in antiquity. It is rectangular in cross section. The inscription is split into five lines reading:+ABCD/EFGHIK/LMNOP/QRSTV/W[XYZ]; The last line is difficult to make out due to wear. An inscription is present on the reverse but it is hard to decipher, but it is probably the same as the obverse.Based on the contents and style of the alphabet, probably dates to between c AD 1500 and AD1700.The hornbook measures 56.6 mm in length, 35.3 mm wide and 2.2 mm thick. It weighs 25.6 g.Similar objects on the database include SOM-5408E1, YORYM-FA8FF1, LVPL-69A2E4, SWYOR-B234D7, NMGW-E9EC71(nearly complete) and LANCUM-4A4EC2.Full-size horn books were teaching tablets that usually contained the alphabet or the Lord's Prayer and which became available during the 16th century. Although the term 'horn book' is commonly used for lead tablets, it is a slightly misleading name. True horn books were made out of wood onto which the printed paper would have been mounted, and then covered with a thin sheet of transparent horn for protection. The lead tablets are far smaller, and would probably have been either toys (Lewis 2012, 98-101) or cheaper versions of the full-size hornbooks.