| The Toothpick |
The Toothpick – “Man’s Most Universal Invention”
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Life at sea during the epoch of the great wooden sailing ships was hard, often brutally so, as those who search for sunken shipwrecks today are reminded time and time again. And so, when divers discover artifacts that exemplify love of artistry and elegance, like the exquisite gold toothpick/earwax scoop shown here, the contrast is particularly striking.
Blue Water Ventures team members have discovered toothpick-grooming tool instruments of greater and lesser elaborateness on Florida’s 1622 fleet and 1715 fleet wreck sites, indicating their popularity and once widespread use. What is perceived today as a curious and eccentric artifact was at the time a symbol of cultured attention to hygiene, and when exotically crafted in solid gold such as this one, a success symbol and conversation piece. (Oh, this little trinket, Don Philippe? Just a little something I picked up during my recent adventures in the New World.)
In his book, The Toothpick - Technology and Culture, Henry Petroski quotes toothpicks as, “next to the wheel …man’s most universal invention.” He writes of an estimated 5,000 year tradition and describes a particular gold toilet set discovered in present-day Iraq, believed to be from about 3500 B.C. The set includes tweezers, ear-spoon, and a “spatulate, stiletto-like instrument running to a point.” He references discoveries of similar sets made of silver, copper and bronze in Europe as well as in China, Japan and other Eastern countries.
While such instruments phased in and out of style over centuries, Petroski credits the Renaissance period, called “the golden age of toothpicks,” as a time in which the toothpick “alone or in a toilette set, exposed or in a decorated case, appears to have been worn and used most conspicuously and proudly.”
The toothpick/earwax scoop grooming tool and related toilette-sets-as-jewelry nearly passed from human custom and consciousness altogether. Errol Flynn did not sport one in the film Captain Blood, nor Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, though it is undeniably a fascinating accessory. There are two particular reasons so very few jewelry pieces of this genre survived the centuries—economics and taste. Gold and silver money was valued entirely by weight; a person in need of quick cash or goods would use their jewelry as currency and it would ultimately be melted down. Additionally, as jewelry styles passed out of fashion, it was common to melt and rework the metals into more contemporary designs. Consequently, if it were not for sunken shipwrecks and buried hoards, exceptional antiquities such as the extraordinary toothpick/earwax scoop grooming tool might never have been reintroduced to the world.
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Photos © Ron Pierson and Blue Water Productions
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