Carved Wooden Sweetheart Busk With Lovebirds

A carved wooden busk, with engraved motifs of lovebirds, crosses, flowers, hearts and the initials N & E.

Early busks were often made of wood, bone or baleen and would be inserted into the centre of stays or corsets to help support the garment and shape the body. Busks could be plain and utilitarian, or elaborately carved and painted, with the latter occasionally exchanged as a love token.

From the collection of The Underpinnings Museum