OK what does the words on this very old piece of wood say?
HELP!
Seriously, this is an icon of some age. It is about 10 inches wide by 14 inches long. It is heavily damaged, and is painted on a thin layer of a Gesso(?) like substance. The wood is still solid totally worm eaten. About the left 1/3rd of the painting is gone. Apparently that was a separate piece of wood that was originally fastened to this one across the back. I am really curious as to what it says and where it came from.
18 comments:
Intriguing; I'd be tempted to take it to the nearest university. Not that they would have a Department of Obscure Old Icons, but often the folks in history or linquistics
'have friends who have acquaintances' and they are naturally and professionally very curious about such things. The inscription may be a clue, or it may simply be the name of the owner or artist, but certainly, the style and construction should enable an 'expert' to suggest the timeframe, geographical source and religious significance. But watch out, some museum might offer a few hundred thousand dollars!
Easier: Next time the Antique Road Show gets within 500 miles, take a road trip.
(I've got a set of E.A. Poe's works you can take, too, for assessment. I'm pretty sure it's not, you know, the ultimate Poe set, but it is one of a not-very-common set.)
Never mind! Hadn' looked online for info on my Poe stuff in a fw years. The Internets are amazing. From the Poe Societ in Baltimore, this is my set:
"The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, 10 vols., New York: Harper Brothers, nd. (Green cloth binding, with gold lettering and ornamentation. The volumes contain various black and white illustrations. The age and nature of this edition has confused many owners. There is no date on the title pages, but in reprinting material from Griswold's edition has misled many into thinking it is from 1849-1856. A 1933 reprint by the same publishers gives their copyright as 1926. Some sources refer to it as the "Harper Centenary Edition" and give it a date of 1910, noting that 1909 was the 100th anniversary of Poe's birth. Anyone familiar with paper and bindings of various periods would assign approximately the same date range without this additional information.)"
It's for sale for $149 here, $100 there. Not bad. Not that I'd sell it.
Highjackingo of thread over. Sorry!
Back to yer icon: Take it to the Antique Road Show!
ER has a co-worker who could probably decipher that.
All our language texts are packed up in unmarked boxes.
I wondered if the symbol the figure is holding in the hand might provide a clue, so I looked it up. It's a later representation of an Eastern Orthodox cross. This cross is a modified version of the Patriarchal double cross, which first originated in the Byzantine empire. Also, the particular style of depicting a half figure with a gold leaf background is influenced by Byzantine iconography. The nimbus/halo and crown on the head were not reserved only for Christ, Madonna, and the saints, but could also be painted on angels, royalty, nuns, etc.
Good luck figuring out who it is.
Tasha
Lisa and I received as a gift a bound copy of a series of pamphlets from a self-proclaimed "Calvinist Baptist" from Britain. The pamphlets themselves mostly concerned the evil of the Roman Church, including a scholastic treatment of the question of whether or not the Pope is the anti-Christ (the author went with it).
A barely-legible name was scrawled in the upper-right corner, and dated, if I recall (this was a decade ago, so forgive my faulty memory), sometime in the 1670's.
I took it to the librarian at Wesley Seminary's library. He was in raptures about it, and after just a bit of research, discovered the bound copy I held in my hand was a lost rarity. The only known surviving copies (all three of them) were in a special collections room at the Library of Congress.
My feeling was that, being Baptist, it belonged with them rather than the Methodists. Around that time, a Baptist Seminary opened up in Richmond, affiliated with Union Seminary (PCUSA), so we took it there. The librarian in charge of special collections was very pleased, and we got a nice mention in a press release from the seminary. If only we had it assessed, we probably could have written it off on our taxes that year, and done well.
I think that bb-idaho has the right idea - high thee to a university, where you might be shuttled about, but at least you will be on the trail of an answer.
Excellent recomendations all. Thanks Tasha, but keep this in mind when you finally unpack your books. It may still be a mystery by then.
Come on you seminarian types, is it even Greek?
Antique Road Show,I'm not sure this would be worth standing in line for all day. I can see that it is unusual(especially for Oklahoma) but I doubt that it is valuable.
ER said: "Highjackingo of thread over. Sorry!" Are you kidding I hyjack your site on a regular basis what have you got to apologize for?
So ER, trixie says you have a coworker that can help?
One way to 'investigate', would be to go to your nearest college website, find the appropriate department, view the various faculty interests and find an e-mail: for example, if you are near Oklamohma, go to http://www.ou.edu/cmrs/facstud.htm
(Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies). It appears that one
Allison Palmer, professor of Art
History, might be an appropriate
contact. Her e-mail is given as
apalmer@ou.edu Or similarly, a
nearby univerisity or college.
You might attach a photo and brief description of the icon and ask if they can take a look, provide information or forward your inquiry to a more appropriate person or department. (I hope you find out more, that inscription seems like an obscure script, at least didn't look Greek to me)
Well, if it's Greek, I think I know who's she talkin' about ... Trixie, e-mail me and confirm. OR, since I really barely know the guy I think she's talking about, Trixie just e-mail him this post ans ask him about it...
Hi Lobojo,
I'm a friend of BB-Idaho's, and a Byzantine rite Catholic. He asked me if I would know anything about the icon you have.
First, it appears to be a Greek/Byzantine style icon, and I think it's of St. Barbara. I can't be 100% sure, because the inscription isn't too clear, but it looks like her.
I would suggest contacting an Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church, someone might be know more. This is a beautiful icon.
One more thing: if you don't want to keep it, please give it to someone who will and not sell it to a museum or antique shop. An icon is considered holy, especially once blessed, and it belongs either in a church or in the home of a faithful Christian. :-)
Feel free to email or IM me if I can be of any help.
I've e-mailed him directly. You need to get to know him better.
Saint Barbara? Thanks Karen, that's a clue I will pursue. I have some specific inquiries out to "specialist" I have not heard back from them. I will let you know how this comes to a resolution.
Sell it? No, don't plan to. In fact I have scanned the image on a highly detailed scanner and flipped it in order to create a symetrical image. I will mount that acid free item next to the actual icon in a closed box frame to protect the original. When completed, I'll post the image.
Trixie, thanks. I didn't know Drlobojo at all, and I wasn't able to email him because I don't have his address. Good that you know him so well, ha.
Drlobojo, that sounds great! Can't wait to see it when it's finished, and what you can find out about it. It could possibly by Coptic too, but I'm leaning towards "very old Byzantine." The icon itself may not be too old, but the style is.
Trixie's friend here.
It does not appear to be Greek to me, though I can't really see the letters well enough to tell you the truth. Iconographers often use abbreviations that can be very hard to decipher. It could be Russian or even Arabic for that matter, I have no idea if its Coptic or not. But in any case, likely the first word is Agios (transliteration from Greek) and stands for "Holy", often also translated as "Saint" but "Holy" is more accurate. And the word following would be the name of the Holy person. And I think the original poster is incorrect in saying the "left" third is missing, I'd like to see the whole thing, especially the bottom border, but I'm sure it's the right part that is missing and that it was originally larger than just one person, looks proportion-wise to have had a second figure to me. I think original size was closer to 16 inches x 20 inches. But without seeing the bottom border I can't be certain. At top left, I'm sure is Christ with some letters intended to be IC XC (Christ Conquers). If I can get a decent printout I'll have a Russian iconographer check it out. Hard to tell from a photo but I'm guessing 300 to 400 years old, or more, and that's probably real gold leaf that was used.
I should correct myself, the complete IC XC inscription would include NIKA, that's the "conquers" part.
... and, I do not think it is Saint Barbara. The crown is more indicative of Catherine, Helen, Theodora or even possibly Theophania. But I'm guessing Catherine or Helen.
... sorry for the continuing followups. I'm pretty sure it is of Slavonic origin (Russian, Ukrainian or whatever) and the lettering is probably Cyrillic. I'll show it to a Russian iconographer on Sunday and compare it to what we have on hand to see if we can narrow it down a bit more. Another crowned saint I forgot is Tatiana. But I'm now inclined to say it is Catherine.
I've posted some more pictures that might help identify the icon.
Keep trucking guys. I'd love to know what it is, and where it came from.
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