Posted 8 years ago
davidantho…
(1 item)
This small artifact is 7cm high x 4cm wide x 2cm deep. It belonged to my grandfather who acquired it in the 1940"s. Still yet to find it's exact purpose - be it for religious or personal keepsake. Would love to know more..
Interesting. Looks like it tells a story about harvesting, from planting to the final creation.
i think that this may have been made to deceive a naiive tourist in order to get them to puchase a piece of the ruins. you can tell the way the image is so centered on this fragment, and the image is completely there, rather than a fragment of an image.
ho2cultcha has a good point.
Thank you Efesgirl and ho2cultcha for your input. So far I have found some possible clues;
1. that it isn't obsidian - most likely whitby jet
2. the obelisk-like depiction resembles Caedmon's celtic cross (in Whitby,UK)
3. The depictions - Top: little girl, too small to help out with the scythe she's carrying, so turned away from the fields
Middle: becoming a young lady, taller and helpful now with the scythe, walking toward fields.
Bottom: becoming a woman, carrying a child in her arms.
Yet the origins of this story is yet to be found.
The cross on top resembles a Templars cross, not sure if that helps or confuses??
At the top of the steps is Caedman's Cross, 20 feet high. Caedmon was an illiterate herdsman at the Abbey in the 7th century who heard words in a dream and wrote his Song of Creation, the first poem known in our literature. He went on to write songs and poetry and is regarded as the first English poet.
http://roys-roy.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/whitby-2.html
Caedmon’s Cross showing Christ, David, Abbess Hilda and the poet Caedmon in four panels .... This beautiful cross, carved from Northumbrian sandstone in a semi-Celtic style, was erected in 1898 to commemorate Caedmon, England’s first recorded poet. The cross stands at the top of the 199 Steps (made famous by Bram Stoker’s reference to them in Dracula) and in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Whitby, North Yorkshire. The Cross however stands perilously close to the edge of East Cliff, part of which fell away and perhaps should now be moved elsewhere for safety.
1898 seems rather late actually.
But it seems there is another cross that dates back to the 14th century standing near the entrance to Witby abbey.
This is a photo of the earlier cross
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_I_listed_buildings_in_Scarborough_(borough)#/media/File%3AWhitby_Abbey_Cross_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1655353.jpg
I'd say that your piece is a naive depiction of Caedmon's cross at this stage because of the four panels. The carver depicts Caedmon differently from the other three figures above him.
Many thanks vetraio50 for enlightening me with your knowledgeable answer. The depictions do appear to be entirely different to Caedmon's cross, which leads me to think it has more do with a harvesting theme, whilst the Templar-like cross gives it some form of possibly being a talisman (it sits quite snugly in one's hand). I will wait patiently for some more elaborate interpretations.
Solved!
I had the fortune of receiving an answer to my piece.
This is a Cross on top of an Obelisk. It is not a proper Cross Pate, and in this form could never be an authentic chivalric "Templar Cross". This squared version, which only hints at Templarism, is distinctly that of the fraternity of Freemasonry, which has a high level of membership named "Templar" (an adjective, never actually part of the name of the Order), in tribute to the Templar Order, but is not a chivalric Order and does not claim to be (i.e. no authority to actually grant Knighthood).
Inside the Masonic "Templar" Cross is a quadruple Fleurs-de-Lis, indicating French Freemasonry. (Note that the main streets and squares of Paris are filled with Obelisks placed there by Freemasons.)
The four figures (three of which are holding a Scythe), are probably not women in dresses as it might seem, but rather they may be men wearing Masonic Aprons, especially in the ancient form worn by Egyptian priests. In that case, the Scythe held by three of them is not associated with the "grim reaper", as we might assume, but instead symbolizes the "ages of time". The Aprons and Scythes as "time" are both very appropriate meanings, considering they are shown inside an ancient Egyptian Obelisk.
In this context, the fourth figure would be holding a loaf of bread as "fruits of harvest", an alternate double meaning of the Scythe, which is probably why they bothered to etch long grass at the feet of all four figures. The "harvest" has a Masonic association with the Biblical Old Testament shew-bread, which is the ancient sacrament of the Temple of Solomon.
It does not contain the requisite glyphic or numerological symbolism to be an Amulet (as in ceremonial magic), but rather it would serve as a Talisman (attracting desired energies by association with its pictorial symbolism).
So be it.