A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Wax Tablets.

The use of wax tablets for writing goes back to the middle ages. The early ones were sometimes in book form, the hinges being of leather thong. These were wooden pages, inletted to allow the pouring of wax. These pages of wax-filled wood could be used over & over because the wax could be smoothed over ready for new writing.

These beeswax tablets could be of plain beeswax, or they were some times coloured black, green or red.
This wax tablet book is undated.

Late 17th century. The writing stylus for this wax tablet book is shown below.
Note the top of this stylus is shaped for smoothing the surface of the wax tablet, erasing previous writing.


This is an early 17th century German wax tablet leather case with tablets.





2 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

I've learned something new today!

Keith said...

Good one.
Keith.