English: Replica Hornbook based on a late Tudor form
The Finlay horn-book (so-called because its provenance is derived through the Finlay family) is primitive and functional, with almost no ornamentation or adornments. It is shorter than most of those described in the literature (142mm wide, 103mm high, 13mm thick with a 90mm handle and weighs 161 grams), with no space for verse: the horn-book is very basic. The book was robustly constructed with a solid oak paddle, a lesson sheet of paper protected by a facia of muscovite mica. The horn-book, though aged and patinated commensurate with the date carved on the back (3 Jan 1591), is nonetheless in exceptional overall condition. The black oak frame is solid and unyielding, deeply carved on the back with initials and date, with a crude cross engraved front and back. The deep carvings have a faint residue of lime or chalk. The lesson-sheet appears to be integral, with brown ink capitals and numerals penned, possibly with an italic nib. The written alphabet uses capitals, with two missing letters (J and U), which is consistent with horn-books of the period (Burnett & Webley, 2020). The mica covering is integral but slightly damaged in places, obscuring a few of the letters. Four overlapping non-ferrous (non-magnetic) lattens bulge at the tacks (unlike images of others) firmly secured by a complete, unusually densely packed set of ferrous tacks (24); both tacks and latten are coated with the same brown encrustation and could be made of the same material but the tack bead-heads are at least in part magnetic. Nowhere are there loose edges or missing fixtures.