⁉️ What the Friday is that?
Every Fortnight, we will be introducing you to an important artifact that is in our collection, here at The Castle Heritage Centre.
We’d love your thoughts, can you guess what it is, how it was used? We’ll follow it up with the answer as we explore another, let’s see how many of you got it!
➡️ This week’s artifact is a medieval pomander. This hollowed, ball-shaped container was filled with a mixture of herbs, spices, flowers, or ambergris, carried or worn to combat bad smells and protect against disease. Here’s a bit of history:
Origin
The word “pomander” comes from the French pomme d’ambre, which translates to “apple of amber”. The wealthy would wear a carved circle of ambergris around their necks.
Construction
Pomanders were often made of wood, silver, or gold, and were decorated with filigree work, enamel, niello designs, pearls, or precious stones. They were usually perforated in a variety of openwork techniques.
Fragrance
The spices in the pomander would produce a sweet scent that could be inhaled when the pomander was raised close to the nose.
Wearing
Pomanders were worn around the neck or suspended from a girdle.
Evolution
Pomanders eventually evolved into perfume, sachets, and various forms of aromatherapy, as well as Christmas decorations.
Did you guess correctly? Well done, we had some brilliant answers, some correct, some close and some, well, just a bit random, but it made us giggle!
Look out for the next one and see if you can guess what this one is?
Did you know we hold an inspirational collection of documents and artifacts that play an important role in Bude, Stratton and the surrounding parishes rich heritage. You can also visit us seven days a week as we are open from 10am every day (including bank holidays).
