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No.55 April 2003 | Contex HOME LECTURE REPORT Looking at London's Pots: Project 2003 DAVID LEWIS In something of a departure from our usual routine, theJanuary meeting tookthe form of a presentation of our new Ceramic Study/Pottery Identification Project. This exercise derives from the Society's work on the Thames Archaeological Survey. Among the various unstratified surface finds that came to light along the foreshore were quantities of potsherds. Initial identification and dating at the Museum of London confirmed that these represented a good cross-section of typical ceramic wares that Londoners have been buying, selling, using, importing and trading over the last one thousand years or more. This abundance of potsherds is not surprising as the Thames has long been a source of material for pottery manufacture (water and clay) as well as being a convenient highway for the transport and trading of both raw materials and ceramic goods. It was the river that ensured London's place both as a major centre for the ceramic trade and, at certain times, for ceramic production. But to return to our sherds, the collections were first used by Carol Bentley in our National Archaeology Weekend displays at the Tower of London. The considerable interest which they generated led us to the idea of putting together a small study collection of sample sherds which Foreshore Team members, and of course anyone else with a budding interest in ceramics, might use as a simple aid to identification. The next stage was for Carol to assemble a basic collection of small (ie easy to keep and handle) sherds, which she housed in a portable specimen case. The sherds fall conveniently into about a dozen distinct categories based on date, material and type, covering early medieval unglazed pottery and lead-glazed medieval pottery to post medieval glazed earthenwares, stonewares and porcelains. My contribution was to get together coloured photographs of complete pots represented by each of the sherd types. In the process a basic catalogue evolved with brief background notes, glossary, short bibliography, etc - now in the form of a loose-leaf set of laminated information sheets. The complete collection, comprising specimen case, sherds and illustrated write-up, amounts to what is essentially a DIY pottery identification kit. This may be borrowed by members at meetings on a monthly basis, subject to a standard booking procedure to ensure the return of the collection promptly and in good order! We are pleased to report that some members have already used and enjoyed the collection. It is intended to develop the package further according to members' needs as well as using it, in whole or part, for publicity purposes, for example at LAMAS and other conferences of that nature. We were particularly pleased to welcome to our meeting Mrs Barbara Rowbottom and her sonAlex. Our travelling collection has been named the Rowbottom Collection in memory of her late husband, Martin, who had a great enthusiasm for archaeology and joined our Foreshore Team only some months before his untimely death. Barbara Rowbottom kindly made a donation to the Society, which enabled us to undertake this project. Among others we must thank in this exercise are all the members of the Foreshore Team and the staff of the Museum of London Specialist Services (MoLSS), who have provided invaluable assistance with identification of finds – in particular Jacqueline Pearce, Roy Stephenson and Robin Simmons. The second part of our evening was a "hands-on" session, when we set out to answer the question of how to recognise sherds simply by sight and touch, as compared with the sophisticated dating and analysis methods available in the Museum of London. A range of post-medieval material was handed round from larger sherds to more or less complete pots from my own study collection, with the finer points of colour variation, hardness, texture and weight being pointed out. In the event, slides were dispensed with, but Bob Stephenson's deft touch with the projector demonstrated, with dramatic effect, the remarkable translucency of the porcelains (even of unglazed wasters). We were also able to test the resonance of porcelain by striking (gently!) - an opportunity to hear authentic sound from the 18th century. The first test of our dating abilities was a porcelain mug, an early example of transfer-printing decorated with a royal portrait. Its identification offered us no great challenge as it was conveniently inscribed KING OF PRUSSIA WORCESTER 1757. A key type, however, for establishing basic chronology. Our attention turned next to high-fired stoneware. In Europe this came to be developed in Germany in the 14th century. Prized for its durability, it was widely exported. We featured a German stoneware jug found in London. An early date was suggested by its thick potting and "pie-crust" base and similar pieces may be seen in a well-known painting by Pieter Breugel the Elder "The Peasant Dance", which dates to about 1576. Stoneware can be glazed by throwing common salt into the kiln during firing. Our example of salt-glazed stoneware from the 17th century was one of the famous face mask ale jugs, or "Bellarmines" - nicknamed, so it is said, by Northern European Protestant ale drinkers after the unpopular Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621) who railed in his sermons against the evils of demon drink. Bellarmines can be closely dated from the many style variations, particularly in the masks (eg Holmes type I, II, II, etc). Bellarmines were even copied in thick porcelain by Chinese and Japanese potters of the 17th century (chinoiserie in reverse), although examples arenow of extreme rarity. Salt-glazed stoneware was successfully produced in England by John Dwight at Fulham from 1671. In the following century, much stoneware was manufactured in Lambeth and Vauxhall. Doulton's of Lambeth was particularly famous in the 19th century for its salt-glazed stoneware. Commercial success came from its sanitary wares, Doulton's pottery and sanitary ware factory at Lambeth, next to the 1862 Lambeth Bridge in 1866 vital in the aftermath of the "Great Stink" of the 1850s and consequent Public Health legislation. Sir Henry Doulton also developed fine art pottery and decorative wares in eclectic high Victorian styles. We showed a fairly typical vase displaying the versatility of the potters in its decoration, which imitated fabric, stone and wood. Less typical, but more archaeological, was a small jug in Egyptian style. This dated from the time Doulton's moved their operations to Nile Street, Burslem in 1870 (an AD rather than BC date!) Tin glazed pottery was used in the Middle East from at least the 9th century AD. Such wares were developed later in Europe, particularly via Italy, Spain(notably Islamic Spain) and the Netherlands. London holds the distinction of producing tin-glazed earthenware at Aldgate shortly after 1571, some thirty years before it was manufactured in Delft (from which the popular name Delftware is derived). Other important Delftware industries were established later in Southwark and Lambeth. Our sherds included part of an early dish from outhwark, its pattern imitating late Ming export porcelain of the Wan Li Emperor (1573-1619). It could be dated to 1630-50. Similar dishes have been found at Pickleherring Wharf and give us an intriguing insight into 17th century tastes for such expensive exotica at a time when the secrets of porcelain making were unknown in Europe. There were important delftware manufactories in operation in the 18th century in Lambeth and Vauxhall. Archaeology is shedding much light on these. Delftware is much prone to chipping and its commercial decline was due to the development in Staffordshire, mainly by Wedgwood, in the 1760s of a superior lead-glazed earthenware body known from its colour as cream-ware (and a blue tinted variant pearlware). The basic Wedgwood formula is still used to this day. From the second half of the 18th century Staffordshire took a lead role in ceramic production in this country. True (hard paste) porcelain dates back as far as the 9th century AD in China but was not re-invented in Europe until 1710 (at Meissen). England, after a late start, first produced porcelain (a soft paste variety) in 1745 at Chelsea and shortly afterwards at Bow. A true London product was our Bow sauceboat, identifiable by its bone ash porcelain body (the beginnings of bone china). Its shape, based on silverware, and the bright blue colour of its chinoiserie decoration pointed to an early date of about 1752-5. London was a major centre of porcelain production in the period 1745-1770. In recent years detailed archive and archaeological esearch has re-written much of this history by revealing "lost" factories at Limehouse, Vauxhall, St James's and Isleworth. By the 18th century Chinese export porcelain was arriving in London in enormous quantities. We duly inspected a typical late 18th century bowl painted in under-glaze blue with the popular "Dragon Pattern", comparable with fragments from the foreshore. An even closer London connection could be seen in a Chinese export dish or stand ordered for the East India Company and decorated with its coat of arms. A fairly precise date was attributable because parts of a similar service have been recovered from a ship, The Diana, which went down in the Straits of Malacca on 2 May, 1817. We hope these ceramic excursions will have whetted members' appetites. We are especially pleased to announce that Jacqueline Pearce, ceramics specialist from the Museum of London, has kindly agreed to give us a lecture under the title "London's Pottery from Alfred to Victoria" on 19 September - a date to be noted in your diaries. |
