Enamelled and gem-set gold toothpick, the handle formed of the torso and head of a woman, probably South Germany, ca. 1580

A gold toothpick. The handle is formed of a naked female figure of Lucretia who is adorned with flowing bands enamelled in blue and red, and with garters of red enamel just below each knee. Her head terminates in a suspension loop. She sits upon a scroll enamelled in green on the front, and in blue and black on the reverse. The sickle-shaped blade of the toothpick is engraved for the application of enamel, which is mostly lost, but is black where is remains. Ornament between the handle and the blade is enamelled in blue, red, white and green. The toothpick is set with two rubies and one diamond, all table-cut.

Historical significance: In an engraving published in Nuremberg in1562, Erasmus Hornick shows a design of a toothpick in which the handle is formed from the head and naked torso of a woman curving, as in the example in the V&A under discussion, in the opposite direction to the blade of the pick (Hackenbroch, 1979, fig. 436). Tait suggests that Hornick might have borrowed 'the idea of this design from an Italian source, most probably from the work of an artist in the Florentine circle of Francesco Salviati (1510-63)' (Tait, 1986, page 168), but no precise source is identified.

Elaborately decorated toothpicks were articles of fashion as well as personal hygiene in the sixteenth century, as they had been in the Ancient World. In the Middle Ages when the pick sometimes took the form a a mounted bird claw, the claw of the bittern was particularly favoured. This toothpick has a suspension loop and would have been worn hanging from a chain around the neck, a custom which Lightbown describes as continuing into the late sixteenth century. He illustrates a portrait of an unknown man by Alessandro Oliviero, late fifteenth century (Lightbown, 1992, page 236, fig. 125), who wears a gem-set toothpick linked by a pearl to a necklace formed of several strands of cord.

Attributed to South Germany (Bury, 1982, Case 13, Board A, no. 2)

Elaborately decorated toothpicks were articles of fashion as well as personal hygiene in the sixteenth century, as they had been in the Ancient World.

The handle is formed of a naked female figure, adorned with flowing bands and garters, her head terminates in a suspension loop, indicating that the toothpick would have been worn on a chain around the neck. The figure on the handle represents Lucretia, wife of Collatinus. Her rape by Sextus Tarquinius led to the overthrow of the last of the Roman kings and the election of Collatinus and Lucius Junius Brutus as the first two consuls in 509 BC.

294-1854