ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

The Pitt Rivers Museum's interest in technology and material

Working Animal Teeth: Penniman's work on ivory and bone

Alison Petch,
Researcher 'The Other Within' project

In 1952 Penniman published an occasional paper at the Museum entitled, Pictures of Ivory and other Animal Teeth, Bone and Antler. Several microsection slides are accessioned into the collections and will be considered as English objects (they were made in England).[1]

Penniman explained why he had published the paper:

'While arranging with Miss Blackwood an exhibition in the Pitt Rivers Museum of objects made of elephant and mammoth ivory and of other animal teeth used as ivory by the various peoples of the world, and another of objects made of bone, antler and horn, it occurred to me that it would be useful to exhibit and store for reverse transverse and longtidinal polished sections and also microsections mounted on glass of ivory, animal teeth used as ivory, bone and antler. I was particularly interested to know whether photomicrographs with a low magnitude, ie from two to four diameters, of the microsections, would show clearly such particular appearances, that it would be possible with the aid of a good reading-glass to look at objects carved of any of these materials, especially in places which afforded a plain cut surface, and identify the material used by the carver. As the work met with some measure of success, I was encouraged to continue. Getting together and preparing all the materials shown in the photographs have taken a number of years, partly because of the war, partly because I have had other occupations, and partly because I have sometimes had to wait a long time and make many inquiries before I could be reasonably certain of the authenticity of a small piece of material. Keepers, curators, and owners of large tusks quite naturally would not want to mutilate them, and I did not presume to ask them to do so. [Penniman, 1952:9]

He describes the new displays he is referring to in the Museum Annual Report:

Two tobacconists’ counters which we happen to have in our basement were rebuilt by our staff, and have enabled us to make special exhibitions, one of the uses of bone, horn, antler, and tortoise-shell in the principal areas of the world, the other of the uses of ivory: elephant, mammoth, hippopotamus, walrus and sperm whale. While Miss Blackwood was selecting and arranging these exhibitions, the Curator collected tusks, and asked Mr. Lomax of the Palaeobotanical Laboratories at Bolton to make polished longitudinal and transverse and microsections, which are shown in an adjoining case. The micro-sections are so useful for diagnosis that they have been photographed by Mr. Chesterman of the Department of Human Anatomy, and will be published with a short commentary by the Curator. Blinds have been fitted to shield the cases from direct sunlight, which softens horn and changes the colour of ivory in a very short time. [Annual Report for year ending 31 July 1942]

Penniman obtained some of the specimens from two sources, Messrs E. Gerrard and Sons [1942.3.10] and Rowland Ward [1952.1.1-3], in London. He also obtained help from several other donors to the collections, Francis Knowles (who volunteered and taught in the Museum and was particularly interested in stone tool technology) and Albert Everard Gunther who had, at that stage, loaned a large collection of netsuke from Japan (they were later donated).

H.J. Hambidge of the Department of Geology, University of Oxford, helped Penniman to contact Lomax Palaeobotanical Laboratories in Bolton who cut most of the sections and microsections and mounted them for Penniman. William Chesterman, of the Department of Human Anatomy (University of Oxford) [1942.6.196-8, 1942.8.4-6, 1944.10.2-10], also took photomicrographs of specimens as did A.W. Dent (we cannot identify the latter items).

Lomax Palaeobotanical Laboratories
The Laboratories cut most of the microsections for Penniman. They were founded by James Lomax (1857-1934), a palaeobotanist, he started work as a coal miner and became interested in the properties of coal and in the fossils he found in the mine. He collected and prepared fossil plants for teaching and museums and pioneered improved techniques for preparing sections. Later he prepared slides for all kinds of geological material. He distributed slides of fossil plants. The laboratories became part of the Coal Research Association. [p. 436 Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists, Ray Desmond and Christine Ellwood]. James Lomax sold and donated much material to Bolton Museum. It would seem that the business passed to a relative (possibly his son) as the Museum mostly dealt with a J.R. Lomax (after James Lomax' death).

A total of 101 specimens were prepared by the laboratories for the Pitt Rivers Museum between 1942-1952.

See also http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/geology/collectorscollections/jameslomax/

Conclusion
In the preface of 'Pictures of Ivory ...', Penniman concludes by inviting readers to visit the specimens themselves, 'All of the specimens pictured are in the Pitt Rivers Museum, and can be examined by anyone who is interested, and contiguous exhibitions show carved work of the various materials. Copies of his publication are long out of print, and no longer available for sale in the Museum, but visitors

Further Reading
Penniman, Thomas Kenneth. 1952 'Pictures of Ivory and other Animal Teeth, Bone and Antler' Occasional Paper on Technology, 5. Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum

Notes
[1] This decision is potentially controversial, really because there is a debate about whether such specimens are really artefacts at all. In many cases such study specimens today would not be accessioned as artefacts but would be considered as study materials. However, the museum really only has one method of cataloguing material, and that is to accession it and treat it as a museum artefact. The decision to treat them as artefacts was, in fact, taken by Penniman and therefore we have considered them to be English artefacts. See also What is an English object [add link]

While arranging with Miss Blackwood an exhibition in the Pitt Rivers Museum of objects made of elephant and mammoth ivory and of other animal teeth used as ivory by the various peoples of the world, and another of objects made of bone, antler and horn, it occurred to me that it would be useful to exhibit and store for reverse transverse and longtidinal polished sections and also microsections mounted on glass of ivory, animal teeth used as ivory, bone and antler. I was particularly interested to know whether photomicrographs with a low magnitude, ie from two to four diameters, of the microsections, would show clearly such particular appearances, that it would be possible with the aid of a good reading-glass to look at objects carved of any of these materials, especially in places which afforded a plain cut surface, and identify the material used by the carver. As the work met with some measure of success, I was encouraged to continue. Getting together and preparing all the materials shown in the photographs have taken a number of years, partly because of the war, partly because I have had other occupations, and partly because I have sometimes had to wait a long time and make many inquiries before I could be reasonably certain of the authenticity of a small piece of material. Keepers, curators, and owners of large tusks quite naturally would not want to mutilate them, and I did not presume to ask them to do so. [Penniman, 1952:9]

See also a Pitt Rivers Museum website information sheet about ivory and bone working.