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Tools and implements
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Lead Stylus
https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/v46/artefact/post-medieval-to-modern/tools-and-implements/lead-stylus-57495.html
Sun, 06 Aug 2023 08:34:10 GMTTools and implements
Description:
A crudely cast circular-sectioned lead stylus. This is a commonly found form of stylus that were possibly employed for writing on slate. The writing end is pointed and the opposite end is chamfered.
Precise dating is uncertain due to material, simplistic manufacture and lack of ornamentation. They are normally associated with sites that pre-date c.1700 AD. This stylus was found on a site producing many medieval to post-medieval artefacts to which dating is broadly based upon. See also UKDFD 50344 & UKDFD 54690
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Apple Corer
https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/v46/artefact/post-medieval-to-modern/tools-and-implements/apple-corer-57336.html
Mon, 17 Apr 2023 11:41:03 GMTTools and implements
Description:
A cast copper-alloy object tentatively identified as an apple corer or other food preparation implement. The object has a slightly tapered rectangular-U-section scoop and a decorative butt-end terminal in the form of a fully moulded squirrel eating a nut. The scoop is possibly incomplete at the cutting edge end.
Identification is tentative as no parallel in copper-alloy has been traced. It is based on corers made from animal bone (e.g. see UKDFD 3834), which is the more usual material from which they were made at the time. More recently, metal apple corers have been made, but the three copper-alloy objects presently identified as possible apple corers on the PAS database are, in fact, crimper ends broken from pastry jiggers. (Compare Michael Finlay, Pastry Jiggers and Pastry Prints, No. 30 with WMID-9EE891, for example.)
Image 4 shows a bone apple corer of broadly similar form to the present one in copper-alloy. It was on offer for sale on the internet at the time of validation with a suggested date of 18th century.
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Pastry Crimper (Fragment)
https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/v46/artefact/post-medieval-to-modern/tools-and-implements/pastry-crimper-fragment-56994.html
Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:12:55 GMTTools and implements
Description:
A fragment of one arm of a pastry crimper. The surviving part has serrated teeth to one end and an incised lattice work pattern above. Complete, the crimpers resemble a small pair of hand held tongs. With the pattern facing the inside of both arms, it is designed to crimp, cut and decorate the surface of soft food items such as pastry.
From the cook book 'Opera dell'arte del cucinare' published by Bartolomeo Scappi, Italian Renaissance chef to Pope Pius V, a very similar kitchen utensil is drawn and described as a 'molete per pasta' (kitchen apparatus, Plate 15). The book was printed from 1570 - 1646.
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Leather Stamp
https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/v46/artefact/post-medieval-to-modern/tools-and-implements/leather-stamp-56825.html
Tue, 10 May 2022 19:11:04 GMTTools and implements
Description:
A stamp for impressing leather, possibly a bookbinder's stamp. The intaglio device consists of two blackletter initials (uncertain, but possiby FG - see Image 5) within a grained rectangular border with chamfered corners. The stamp, which would have been fitted with a wooden handle, is now incomplete, the tanged end of the shank, having broken off.
Bookbinders applied gold leaf decoration by first making a blind impression in the leather and brushing it with an adhesive egg-white glair. The gold leaf was then applied with a heated stamp, and the excess wiped from the edges.
A cast copper-alloy pastry jigger wheel. The wheel is radially fluted to produce the zigzag cutting edge, and drilled at its centre for the axle bar. Corroded residue from the iron axle bar is present in the hole.
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Nut Cracker
https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/v46/artefact/post-medieval-to-modern/tools-and-implements/nut-cracker-55795.html
Wed, 20 Jan 2021 20:41:02 GMTTools and implements
Description:
A copper-alloy openwork nut cracker of the post medieval period. It has a rectangular frame with small projections at each corner and a heart-shaped thumb screw. The pressure plate from the end of the screw is missing.