#renaissance tools

[letsgostealthelouvre]

For when you need a spoon that carries a distinct threat of violence.

[ID: A wooden spoon with a wide and shallow bowl; instead of a handle, there is a carving of a man standing “on top” of the upper part of the spoon. He wears poofy pantaloons, a breastplate, and a decorative hat, all of which are reminiscent of an old-timey guard or watchman; he carries a halberd, a long pole with an axe head at one end, in his hand.]

[letsgostealthelouvre]

There’s a point in a story I wrote recently where a retired king, discussing princehood with his adoptive son, mentions that if he officially becomes a prince, he gets a ceremonial knife, mostly as a joke; this is definitely the kind of knife I was thinking of when I wrote that (although the king and prince are Jewish and this is a Really Christian Knife). 

It’s worth it to check out the Louvre’s record, click on the handle image, and then enlarge it; the carving is a masterwork and very fun to decipher. 

[ID: Two images; one shows a knife with a steel blade and boxwood handle. The second image is a close-up of the handle, which has been carved with tiny intricate figures; it looks like the interior of a church with arched recesses, each of which has a tiny tableau of a biblical scene. It’s difficult to tell, but the scenes include top left, the Annunciation, lower left, Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden, top right, the crucifixion, and lower right, what is described in the record as the Lord’s Supper and the Kiss of Judas, though it’s tough to tell.]

[letsgostealthelouvre]

This fork and spoon are made from hand-carved ivory, and I cannot get over the knotwork on the spoon, or the tiny dog heads on the end of the fork’s handle. 

[ID: A photograph of a spoon, a flat shallow bowl with a very thin handle that looks almost as if it was made of twisted and knotted rope; below the spoon is a two-tined fork, with a more angular, almost architectural handle, crowned by a half-circle with tiny dog heads emerging from either end.]

[letsgostealthelouvre]

Over and over, what I learn from the Louvre’s digital collection is that humans are gonna human. 

This little object is sightly larger than 10cm long (about 4″, maybe four and a half) and ceramic. The Louvre owns several of them; they are 15th century bird feeders. Just a little bitty bin you could put out, full of birdseed or dried peas or whatnot, for the birds to come and enjoy. Truly charming. My parents have one almost exactly like it, just larger.

[ID: An oblong tray, about twice as long as it is deep, with a divider in the middle; it has been broken and reassembled and is missing small pieces, but it’s clearly meant to hold something, in this case feed for birds.]

[letsgostealthelouvre]

This is a seven-bladed penknife or “surgical kit” which makes me really glad I live in the 21st century. I might die in poverty if I get cancer in this country, but at least nobody’s using that pick on the right on my insides.

[ID: A penknife with a gold handle and seven blades arrayed outward from the handle like a fan; there is one triangular blade like a scalpel, four square blades, one pointed blade like a stiletto, and one that has a hook on the end. It looks both vicious and like anyone dealing with the business end of one of these was going to suffer.]