Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1953, Page 82

86
SUMMARY
An Old Icelandic Lathe.
The picture on p. 82 shows a model of a lathe of a type which is known to
have been in use in the Westfjords in Iceland as late as the beginning of
the twentieth century but has now disappeared altogether, the model
having been made by an old man who owned the last specimen of this type
of lathe. It is a primitive arrangement, whose distinguishing feature is
that the artifact being made is turned by hand with a string wrapped
around a wooden axle, not by a wheel turned by a treadle. In former days,
and even into the ninetcenth century, farmers in the Westfjords used to
produce from driftwood turned cups, plates, dishes and bowls for sale
in other parts of the country. Probably this industry has ancient tradi-
tions, the product being í'eminiscent of the turned w'ooden household ar-
ticles from mediaeval Greenland, from the Viking Age (Oseberg, Haithabu)
and from the Celtic Iron Age (Hjortspring). The present model may thus
possibly be the last descendant of a primitive lathe which through long
ages was common among all Nordic peoples.