A Rare Medieval Burnishing Tooth in the Museum of Writing, London

Abstract

Many of the tools commonly used in book production in the later Middle Ages have proved remarkably elusive in the archaeological record. Thousands of extant manuscript pages are decorated with gold leaf, yet no examples of the tools used in gilding have been reported. An exception is a bovid tooth in the collections of the Museum of Writing (London). The tooth bears marks consonant with modification as a burnisher, appropriate wear marks and traces of gold leaf. The object was first recorded in association with other scribal tools. The tooth is illustrated and described, its provenance and the potential significance of the assemblage to which it belonged are discussed, and it is put into a larger craft context by surveying the range of tasks for which tooth burnishers served, the preferred animal sources and the chronological range of the practice.