Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/288

 170 SINGULAR SCULPTURED CHESS-PIECE, NOTICE OF A SINGULAR SCULPTURED OBJECT, PROBABLY A CHESS-PIECE, FOUND AT KIRKSTALL ABBEY. COMMUNICATED BY MR. JOHN DIXON, OF LEEDS. The remarkable example of the skill of earlj mediaeval artificers in the sculpture of ornaments of bone or ivory, here submitted to the readers of the Journal, presents one of the most singular relics of its class hitherto brought under our notice. It was found, about twenty years since, amongst the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, in Yorkshire, with two circular pieces of lead, supposed to have been Papal bidlcB. Our best thanks are due to Mr. Dixon for the communication of so interesting an object, and especially for the facilities kindly given in transmitting this valuable relic to be exhibited at the meetings of the Institute, as also for the purpose of being drawn by the able pencil of Mr. Henry Shaw. The original intention of this singular object, at first sight, appeared inexplicable. It has been supposed, with much probability, that it is one of those ancient pieces for the game of chess, formed from the fine-grained tusk of the rosmar, or rostungr, of the northei-n seas, known as the walrus, morse, or sea-horse ; they were sculptured in the Scandinavian coun- tries, and highly esteemed, from an early period. This mate- rial, the "huel-bone'^ of Chaucer, the " whale's bone" of ancient English song, well suited to form a substitute for ivory in times when difiiculty of communication with the East must have rendered the tusk of the elephant a raiity of costly price, was largely used by the skilful sculptors of the north for various purposes of ornament or convenience. Amongst these, as we learn from the treatise of the Archbishop of Upsala on the antiquities of the northern nations, as also from Olaus Magnus, chessmen, very artificially carved, were so esteemed as to be included with royal gifts. In a former volume of the Journal, some curious examples of ancient chess-men, one of them formed of the ros'mar's tusk, were described and represented.^ The remarkable col- lection, discovered in the Isle of Lewis, and now preserved in the British Museum, is doubtless well known to many of our readers ; as also the memoir upon that interesting discovery, and on the introduction of the game of chess into Europe, contributed to the Archaeologia by Sir Frederic Madden.'^ ' Arrhnrdl. .loiiriial, vol. iii., p. 2(1. ' Airhacologia, vol. xxiv., p. '203.