Summary

Bone playing piece with a horseman in relief, from Urquhart Castle, 15th or 16th century

Accession Number

H.HY 22

Other references

Original description

Urquhart Castle. [One of] Collection of relics found during the restoration of the Castle by H.M. Office of Works - see Register for 1923 pp.53-63 and Loan Register 1923. 5-140. PSAS 112, 1982, 465-476. Bone playing piece. Horseman in relief, but poor in detail, eg the horseman's legs are missing. The poor quality of the bone obscures his face and the horse's head and neck. There remains some incised hatching below the horse and an unintelligible figure behind the rider's back (vaguely resembling a rabbit?). The piece appears in Goldschmidt (1926, fig 281), where it is dated 11-12th century, but in its rough condition any date based on artistic style must be speculative. SD note, November 1999: Upgraded from PSAS.//T. Deniozou note, 2011-03-11, Information taken from Glenn, Virginia, Romanesque & Gothic: Decorative Metalwork and Ivory Carvings in the Museum of Scotland, NMSE Publishing, Edinburgh, 2003: [One of] B1, C42, 41-2 [Angels, Nobles and Unicorns reference] //The reverse and vertical edges are undecorated. The face has a plain rim and a man on horseback crudely carved filling the central space, riding from left to right, with a rabbit (?) in the background.2//By the reign of William the Lion (1165-1214) Urquhart Castle was probably already in existence, its 12th-century timber structure standing on a natural vantage point on the shore of Loch Ness.3//NOTES:1 PSAS, vol LVIII, 1924, 140.//2 See notes to L3.//3 Tabraham 1986, 31, 40.

Associated person/people (e.g. excavator/former collection)

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Excavated

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Inverness-shire, Scotland, Northern Europe

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1955-06-03

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Seafield Trustees
MacKenzie, Innes and Logan [Melville Street, Edinburgh]

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Donor
Agent

Image