In the 1600s London 'Horners' began to export worked and un-worked horn from America, India, and America to Europe. Much of this horn was split into thin layers or leaves which were used as windows in lanterns or lant-horns as they were originally known. Horn was also used to make combs: buttons, fans, spoons, drinking horns, powder horns, window panes, and jewellery.

It was a popular raw material because it could be heated and moulded into a range of products as well as carved and dyed. Moulded products were faster and more economical to produce than carved ones. For this reason of horn was pivotal to the later development of plastics in Europe as the methods used to shape horn and tortoiseshell were adapted in the search for more synthetic products.

Spoons and ladles made from horn do not conduct heat or tarnish like metal. Spoons were often given as tokens of love or on ceremonial occasions such as the christenings and weddings. Horn spoons were carved or heated and pressed in metal or wooden spoon moulds. Some of the finest examples were made in Scotland where a silver finial or shield was added or a whistle of carved into the tip. These spoons have a whistle carved into the tip and were possibly made as gifts for children.

By the middle of the nineteenth century tortoiseshell and ivory were becoming expensive and this encouraged the search for alternate materials. In 1852 Alexander Parkes developed the first semi-synthetic plastic from cellulose nitrate and by 1860 it was being pressed into moulds to make billiard balls, pens, and even artificial teeth. Natural plastics like horn continued to be used well into the twentieth century but synthetic plastics are now used almost exclusively by manufacturers.

References
MacGregor, A., 'Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn: the technology of skeletal materials since the Roman period', Barnes and Noble Books, New Jersey, 1985.
Mossman, S., (ed.), Early Plastics; perspectives, 1850-1950, Leicester University Press, London, 1997
Schaverien, A., 'Horn, its History and its Uses', Everbest Printing Co., 2006
Mossman, S., Morris, P. J. T., (eds.), 'The Development of Plastics', Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 1993

Significance Statement, Geoff Barker, March, 2007

Spoon and fork, Ox horn. maker unknown, 1870-1900

A spoon and fork that have been made from Ox horn. The handles of the spoon and fork have been decoratively carved and feature an open mouth monster, a dog like animal and at the end of each handle, a bird with its wings spread. The carving is detailed in red and blue paint.

Maker: unknown; 1870 - 1900

E5274

1870 - 1900