Linen-smoother of glass and fragments of a bone plaque

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Large lumps of glass and bone plaques, found in Viking graves and settlements, were probably used for smoothing linen. This linen-smoother was found at Perth in Perthshire and the plaque is from a grave at Kingscross Point on Arran.

The linen-smoother was made from a single large droplet of black glass. The plaque is ornamented. If complete, it would have provided a smooth surface to wind damp linen cloth around in order to smooth with the glass smoothers.

Glass linen-smoothers were used into the 19th century in Norway and Scotland. They occur in Viking women's graves with other objects relating to textiles. The use of the plaque is less clear, but they also occur in wealthy women's graves in Scandinavia.

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• Online ID: 000-100-043-838-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 364
• Date: Linen smoother: after 900. Plaque: between 850 and 900
  
• Material: Bone, cetacean; partly ornamented
  Glass, black
  Linen smoother
  Plaque
  
• Dimensions: 3.44" D x 0.44" thick
  
• What: Linen smoother
  Plaque
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Bute, Arran, Kilbride, Kingscross Point
  Scotland, Perthshire, Perth
  
• Event:
• Description: Decorated whalebone plaque from a grave mound at Kingscross Point, Arran
  Linen smoother of black glass, from Perth
  
• References:
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, pp. 26-7. 
• Translations:
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