Finch & Co

Medium / Material

Flint

Description

Two Prehistoric Neolithic Stone Age Prepared Flint Blade Cores, a form of currency known as ‘Motte de Beurre’ found in France in the Loire Valley at Abilly
Both inscribed in black ink ‘Delahaye’
Neolithic Stone Age 8500 – 4500BC

Sizes: A: 30cm high – 11¾ ins high
B: 28cm high – 11 ins high

Provenance

See: Finch & Co catalogue no.13, item no.64, for three other Neolithic flint blade cores

Literature

Sculpted with the shape of the last tools fashioned from them, these flint blade cores are unmistakable in their rich butter-yellow hue and became known in France as ‘Motte de Beurre’. The knives struck from them were called ‘Livres du Beurre’. The large flints were mined in the area around Le Grand-Pressigny in the southern Touraine during the Neolithic Period. The prepared flint cores were then traded across Europe as a form of currency.