Summary

Tablemen of bone ornamented with the figure of a rabbit, found in the ruins of the Bishop's Palace, Kirkwall, 11th to 12th century

Accession Number

H.NS 4

Other references

Original description

Tablemen of bone, ornamented with figure of rabbit, found in ruins of Bishop's Palace, Kirkwall.//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 round flat playing piece is carved with a grotesque hare, with a large head and long claws, within a plain border. The reverse is completely plain.2//Thomas Stewart Traill, born in Kirkwall in 1781, became professor of medical jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh and was very proud of his Orcadian origins.3 His bequest to the museum also included Egyptian and Roman antiquities. Two notebooks by Thomas Stewart Traill in the museum archive4 contain detailed notes, measurements and drawings of Kirkwall Cathedral with its monuments, bells and collection plate.5//When the cathedral was moved from Birsay to Kirkwall and work on the new church began in 1137, a suitable dwelling for the bishop was also provided. By 1320 it was recorded as being for the most part in ruins and it was largely reconstructed by bishop Robert Reid (1541-58).6 However, the masonry of the lower parts of the 12th-century hall, which is over twenty-seven metres long, show quite clearly that the original structure was part of the same building programme as the cathedral itself.7 //NOTES:1 PSAS, vol VIII, 1871, 389-91, names the bequest as that of Professor William Stewart Traill, but this is an error. The Society of Antiquaries manuscript minute book for 1868-1880 gives him no forename, but in the 1892 NMAS printed catalogue the bequest is ascribed to Professor T S Traill. His cousin was named William and was probably one of his executors, leading to this confusion. There was no professor of the latter name in the University of Edinburgh in the 19th century and the two Williams registered as doctors were in Arbroath and Dunfermline, with no apparent Orkney connections (The Medical Register, London 1860, 1873, 1878).//2 See notes to L3.//3 Grant 1884, vol II, 449-50; DNB, vol LVII, 1899, 151; Traill 1883, 52.//4 NMS mss 555 and 556, deposited in 1890 by Joseph Anderson.//5 His father was the minister of Kirkwall.//6 Simpson 1965, 7-9.//7 Ibid, 11-12.

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

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Not recorded

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1873

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Professor T.S. Traill

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Donor

Image