Spoons
Until 2018 the craft of the Irish horner, who skilfully transformed cow horn into masses of useful and decorative things, was unknown. My focus on horn spoons allowed close analysis, of about 120 examples that survive in Irish museums. It reveals the stages needed to make smooth, translucent, ergonomic spoons, from the horn of a cow. The spoons vary from highly fashionable, imitating distinct shapes seen in c18th silver flatware (yet less expensive), to functional. The earliest spoon comes from Viking Dublin, and they were made until the 1920’s, when plastic finally took over.
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