Toddy ladle (late 18th - early 19th cent).

Two kiln stands used to support pots when firing Castle Hill, Rattray (13 - 14 cent).

found in Kemnay, Aberdeenshire.

The Inuit of Arctic America used all the natural resources that were available to them, particularly animals, such as seal, caribou, walrus and whales, and they processed their skins, bones, tendons and even intestines into food, clothing, and equipment. They had a number of scrapers and knives developed to help in this work, for scraping and cutting skins and processing tendons. This is a scraper, or 'Tesirqun', used for scraping the hides of prey animals, particularly seals, before they were made into clothing and equipment. The iron, fan-shaped blade has a curved cutting edge and is convex, and is set into a slot in a curved bone handle. The crescentic cutting edge of the curved blade, and the hooked handle retain the traditional form of a scraper made on a single piece of bone, but this has been adapted to material traded from Europeans. The scraper comes from Chesterfield Inlet, Hudson Bay, Canada and dates from the beginning of the 20th century.

During the medieval period pottery techniques, including firing and glazing, improved greatly and the craft became industrialised. Large kilns were built in which batches of vessels could be fired. These are two of three kiln stands which were found in a kiln at Castle Hill, Rattray, Aberdeenshire, a medieval burgh. The kiln stands are wheel-thrown in a hard red sand-tempered fabric and are heavily rilled. Their profile is concave and the base wider than the rim. There are traces of green glaze on both, possibly dropped from the pots they supported, and there is blackening from being in the kiln. They date from the 14th century. These kiln stands would have been used, inverted, to hold pots upside down in the kiln during firing.]]> ABDUA:289]]> ABDUA:178]]>
Combs These were worn in the hair as decoration.

6. Described by its collector as a 'nose instrument'. The putorino was usually played bugle-fashion to summon people together.

9. Worn as a protective amulet. Important 'tikis' were treasured as heirlooms which accumulated the force, 'mana', of their successive owners.

H. 7. THE E'TIKI, an heir-loom of the New Zealanders. C. W. Nockells.

H. 17. NEW ZEALAND NOSE-INSTRUMENT.

9. Tiki in greenstone, obverse represents grotesque human figure, eyes inlaid with mother of pearl, reverse flat. Cord in plaited vegetable fibre, and button in bone of bird. Neck-pendant, heirloom of New Zealnders. - Presented by C W Nockells.

Clay pipe Aberdeen (18th cent).

Iron tongs, Coull Castle, Aberdeenshire

Smoking was a popular pastime from when tobacco was first brought from South America in the 16th century. Pipes were usually made from clay and continued to be so until the end of the 19th century, even though wooden ones were available. Most pipes were plain or only decorated simply. This is an early example of a clay pipe, dating from the later 17th century. It is quite substantial but has a small bowl. It is decorated with a fringe of small vertical incised lines around the rim of the bowl. This is a well-preserved example of an early clay pipe from NE Scotland. Normally they are only preserved in pieces because they are fragile, and because they broke in use they were thrown away.

In Europe about 3000-1700 BC, from the late Neolithic into the Bronze Age, flat-based, finely made pots, known as beakers, were widespread. They have an S- or Z-shaped profile, and are decorated with bands of fine incised geometric pattern. In NE Scotland the Northern beaker types are associated with the introduction of metal working and are often found in individual cist burials, both probably related to settlement of people from Europe. Later beakers were made locally, and often have archaic or idiosyncratic features. This is a Late Northern type with an S-shaped profile and a flaring neck and a very small base with a foot. The fabric is coarse, although the vessel is not heavily made, and the impressed decoration is unevenly applied. There are two bands of lines, cross-hatching, chevrons and fringes around the belly and neck, separated by plain zones. Around the foot runs a continuous large, striped triangular pattern. The beaker was found in a cist at Parkhill, Quarry, Durris, Kincardineshire. Four other cists, with beakers were found at the same location.

This is one of a large number of images of the Stuart dynasty in general in the university collection. These images attest to Stuart Royal patronage of King's College and later to the prolonged Jacobite sympathies of both King's and Marischal Colleges. In particular there are a large number of images, particularly engravings, of Mary, reflecting her role as one of the cast of 'hero' figures from Scottish history in whom much of nineteenth century Scottish identity was invested. This is a photographic reproduction after a painting in the Prince's Chamber in the House of Lords. It is one of a series of 'Tudor Portraits' produced by students of the Royal School of Art, South Kensington.

]]> ABDUA:403]]> William Macgregor (1846-1919) served the British Colonial Office for 14 years in Fiji (1875-1888), primarily as Chief Medical Officer, but also holding offices such as Receiver-General, Colonial Secretary, Commissioner of Stamps and Acting Administrator.

Bronze 'sunflower head' pin and necklet from a hoard Dingwall (c900-600BC).

During the Neolithic in Britain, about 4000-2000 BC, accomplished flint knapping produced some highly finished items, such as arrowheads, knives, sickles and laurel leaf points. These, along with ground stone artifacts, were probably objects denoting high social status. This is an end scraper made on a fairly large blade, in a grey mottled flint. The distal end of the blade has been modified by steep retouch to make an almost V-shaped scraper edge. The scraper was found in the Bog of Fintray, Fintray, Aberdeenshire, along with other large, well made flint tools. This type of tool is typical of some made in the later Neolithic, but it is possible that the flint was brought into Aberdeenshire from further south in Britain.

During the Bronze age jewellery and personal ornaments were made from metal, both bronze and gold. This is a bronze pin-head of the sunflower type. It is a bronze disc with a central boss and a projection on the underside where the pin has broken off. It is decorated with two sets of incised concentric circles and the rim is upturned. This pin-head is part of a collection of bronzes donated to Marischal Museum, Aberdeen in July 1984. The donation included the donor's great-grandfather William Joyner's original collection of the Dingwall hoard of bronzes taken by him to Natal, South Africa in 1851 and two other bronzes. The hoard comprises this pin-head, two socketed axes and a rare neck-ring, all dating from the later Bronze Age, 1100-700BC and found together near Dingwall in the early 19th century. The two other bronzes became associated with the collection while in Africa and are probably of African origin. During the prehistoric period collections of metal or stone items, often of value to the community or individuals, were buried or deposited in wet places. Axeheads, swords, halberds and ornaments are often found in these hoards. The type of artefact found in a hoard is probably not typical of everyday objects. However, the associations of different objects can help to establish the dates of artefact types.

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