Featured Small wood panel… Pomegranate or poppyseed head?

What do you think, does this depict a stylized pomegranate or poppyseed head? (I'm leaning toward the latter. I understand poppy flowers symbolize sleep/death, but what about seedheads?) I presume it may have once been a panel from a piece of furniture or cabinetry... or not. It's a bit darker to the naked eye than it appears in the photos. The panel is about 3/8 inch or 1cm thick. Opinions/guesses/knowledge on age, wood type, and origin are welcome, thanks!

I thought it a pretty little thing and I have a good place to display it so it is now mine. Purchased from a UK seller who believed it to be from the 1880s, but knew nothing more.

 

Pomegranate, I think. The seeds are quite large compared to the hundreds that must be in a poppy pod. While the body shape is not spherical, it still seems more like pomegranate than poppy to me.



In the glyptics world, poppy heads are used more than the flowers to indicate sleep/soporific power.

This strikes me as Odysseus in the land of the Lotus Eaters, but Tassie catalogue has it as Night giving poppies to Morpheus.



Wedgwood calls this 'Night shedding poppies'.

 

I’d like to add another suspect: pineapple. It was a popular motif in architecture and furniture etc long after the explorers brought some back from the New World.

I would’ve bought the panel, too.

 

Good thought. I'm not sure how, maybe because it was a special treat, but the pineapple became a symbol of hospitality.

Pomegranates symbolize both righteousness & fertility.

 

Yes, I used to notice them all around London on fences etc.
And they are still very popular as symbols of hospitality in the US South.

I’ve seen stylized examples of pineapples on English oak cabinet doors from the 17th C but can’t find a good photo.

 

The word pineapple used to refer to pine cones, and "pineapples"/pine cones stand for fertility, abundance, and prosperity.
Traditionally, pine cones on a fence are a wish that the property inside the fence is prosperous.

In Dutch the word "pijnappel" still means pine cone, although we have another word for them as well.
The pineapple fruit is called "ananas" in Dutch, so we don't have the pineapple-pine cone confusion.

 

The fruit is called ananas in Finnish and Portuguese, too. And pinecone is käpy in Finnish. So no confusion there either.

I suspect the fencepost finials with broad leaves at the bottom are supposed to be pineapples rather than pinecones. If not artichokes or acorns…

How and when pineapples came to be associated with hospitality, I don’t know. The ones I’ve seen in old English wood carvings are definitely not pinecones but pineapples.

Edit: for those who like tangents and rabbit holes, an article about London’s obsession with pineapples.

https://londonist.com/london/history/why-is-london-so-obsessed-with-pineapples

 

That's the French word too, and likely German but I honestly don't remember.

 

Thanks everyone, such wonderful info!

I keep thinking I've seen the shape before... art nouveau and William Morris keeps coming to mind, too.

I'd never thought of a pineapple, thanks for the new research direction.

My very first inclination was pomegranate. They often appear split open with the many seeds shown.
But then I got off on a poppy seed head tangent...

 

Right, that’s why it was so familiar! Pomegranates have been an enduring motif and was used a lot in the Morris/art nouveau era. The time frame is also right for what your seller said.

This is French textile from 1760.



And a photo of pomegranate tile used at some London tube stations.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/4825397694


P.S. There’s a Finnish saying that warns of the dangers of passing the sea to go fishing… i.e. going too far. I think that applies to my pineapples…

Edit.I edited this post for clarity. The penny dropped re pomegranates when Bluumz mentioned Morris. Both of my examples were meant to show pomegranates.

 

It is a word from the Tupi language, Native Brazilian. Part of coastal Brazil was colonised by the Dutch West Indies Company, which is how the word was introduced to the Dutch language.
The Portuguese colonised Brazil before (and after) the Dutch did, so it ended up in Portuguese as well. From there it probably spread to other Continental European languages.

Not really pineapple leaves, and they are missing the leaves at the top of a pineapple/ananas. Although it wouldn't be the first mistake when depicting something foreign. Probably a mix of pine cones and pomegranates.

The pineapple may have been an expensive fruit when it was first introduced, but I think the writer of the Londonist blog is forgetting the older traditions, and seeing pineapples where they aren't. The language confusion probably doesn't help either.

I would call that a stylized pomegranate, a favourite motif in Europe for at least 1000 years, due to the Persian influence.
There was a time when learned Europeans read Persian and were very familiar with Persian art.
Pomegranate motifs were also introduced through Indian and Indo-Persian textiles which were imported in Europe in large quantities from the 16th century onward. There was import before that, but not in such a large scale.

Again, a traditional European and Asian way of depicting pomegranates.

Going back to the source, Persian Sassanid period pomegranates:



And more on the Persian love of pomegranate symbolism:

https://www.packtoiran.com/blogs/detail/84/Pomegranate---The-Persian-fruit-of-heaven

I think you were right. It is a traditional looking piece, so a traditional motif would be the first choice imo.

 

Thanks for the info! The fruit on Bluumz’s panel (and the French textile and London tube tiles) are all obviously pomegranates—I just didn’t think of Morris before Bluumz mentioned him.

As for London and pineapples, I believe many stylized fruit seen around London are indeed supposed to be pineapples. That’s what I was always told. Deeper into the rabbit hole:

https://www.lewisconnolly.com/post/2016/5/9/this-is-a-pineapple

https://2020.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/a-pineapple-for-london/