Obs. Also 5–6 tavelyn, 6 -yng, -ing, tavalyn. [app. ad. It. tavolino ‘any little boord, table, tablet’ (or some cognate word), dim. from tavola ‘a table, planke, or flat boorde’ (Florio).] Formerly, with furriers, (in pl.) app. the boards between which small packages of skins were imported; hence, a small package of skins or certain portions of fur (usually or always four), put up between two boards. (Cf. TIMBER, applied to a package of forty skins between two stout boards of timber [Skene].)
1439. Inv. T. Burgh (Comm. Crt., Lond., Prowet 22). xxx lose tavelyns xv d.
1503. Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 89. iiij tavelyns of shankes for the coler and fent of the said gowne, ijs.
1505. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 42. Item, for xiiij tavalyns of ermyng to the samyn goun, brocht be the Quenis maister of wardrob; ilk pece ij s. iiij d, summa … vili. xs.
1545. Rates of Customs, C vij b. Tauelynges the hundreth vj s. viij d. Ibid. (1586), E viij. Taueling the c, xiij s. iiij d.
