TOY

An almost complete cast lead hornbook of post-medieval date. The hornbook is rectangular in plan and section and bears raised text on both sides.
The obverse is decorated with a framed border consisting of zig-zags within which are the letters of the alphabet arranged in four lines of text separated with horizontal lines: ABCDEFG//HIKLM//N(retrograde)OPQRS(retrograde)//TVWXYZ. The letters J and U are missing which is a common feature of this object type. The reverse is stamped with five lines of text again separated by horizontal lines this time reading: THOMAS//OFOTHER//DDEBO[-]//ESMEFIC//IT.(hatching)1670 (Thomas of other good art made me. 1670). The lowest portion of this side is obscured by damage. The feature of text on both sides of this object is unusual as the reverse more commonly bore geometric motifs, animals or foliate decoration. A short and worn stubbed projection represents the remains of the narrow handle.
The hornbook is 44mm long, 35.8mm wide, 2.5mm thick and weighs 21.9g.

Hornbooks proper were used as learning aids and were fairly large tablets printed with the text to be learnt - usually the Lord's Prayer or the alphabet. They were commonly made of wood onto which the printed paper would have been mounted, and then covered with a thin sheet of transparent horn for protection. Smaller, portable tablets of lead-alloy are generally thought to be mass produced versions of hornbooks proper and while still referred to as "hornbooks the term is, in these instances, slightly misleading.

Michael Lewis suggests that mistakes and inconsistencies on lead-alloy examples would be ineffective as learning tools and may therefore have been made as toys for children in low-literacy families or perhaps even toys which mimic the hornbook proper and were "owned" by children's dolls.