Broad Axe, Honing Steel, and Sausage Rim (obliculum)
On the Iconography of the Butcher’s Craft Symbols as Exemplified by Late Gothic and Renaissance Stone Reliefs from Moravia
The article explores artefacts from the Late Gothic and Renaissance periods in Moravia, primarily stone reliefs related to the butcher’s craft. These are categorised into figural reliefs depicting cattle (or a single animal) slaughter and stone carvings that illustrate the butcher’s tools and implements, representing the butchers’ symbolism. The introduction, which deals with the butcher’s craft partly in a European con text, is followed by an analysis of the iconography of works associated with butchers in the Czech lands and the list of fourteen artefacts from Moravia, along with analogies from Bohemia and the neighbouring countries, as well as from the area of the domestic and foreign book painting, heraldry, sphragistics, etc. Special focus is given to the butcher’s honing steel, an arched, lens ‑shaped type, and a tool called the sausage rim (obliculum). Though the latter was common in the past, it is now largely forgotten. It was used for stuffing casings, as evidenced by various iconographic sources. Five excursions explore related themes: reliefs featuring the Pernštejn family legend and a stone depiction of a scene with a captured bison, which are similar to representations of cattle slaughter on butcher artefacts; a relief slab in the Church of St Catherine in Chrudim, which is, as yet, insufficiently recognised as the richest collection of butcher’s craft symbols in the Czech lands; the obscure tool called the sausage rim, referenced in iconography and literature; and the Schweinestechers, a specific branch of butchers in the German lands, whose primary professional symbol was the sausage rim. The last one is dedicated to some misunderstandings in the systematics of Czech typological classification and naming of honing steels, in which the term sausage rim in any form is completely absent. It remains unrecognised by Czech art history, archaeology, museology, ethnology, and other disciplines. Therefore, the study aims to bring it back to the consciousness of experts.
Keywords: butcher – symbolics – relief – iconography – honing steel – sausage rim (obliculum)
Published: January 1, 2026 Show citation
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On the Iconography of the Butcher’s Craft Symbols as Exemplified by Late Gothic and Renaissance Stone Reliefs from Moravia. Průzkumy památek, 32(2),
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