Samian Ware

You always find something special. Find of the day this time was my first Roman samian ware - nearly 2000 years old. This small piece of pottery was just sitting, upside down on the pebbles. As I turned it over I caught lettering in the middle of the bowl. Liking things with writing I knew it would be plopped into my bag. I assumed it was stoneware but as I looked more closely the lettering had a Roman look, so felt a little excited. What's weird is that it looks so modern, almost machine made, similar to the stuff churned out in Staffordshire from the late 18th Century. 

Mudlarking Find: Base of Roman Samian Ware 

Samian Ware(British Museum) 

Base (British Museum) 

I subsequently learnt that 'samian' potters often stamped their name in the base of their bowls. The next day my youngest helped me decipher the name TAVRICIM rising up from the base of my find, which as V's = U's in Latin is Tauricim. I found one mention in a 1895 reference book from the Musee Lyon 'inscriptions antiques'. Next to his or her name is 'Sainte-Colombe' a town in Western France - perhaps the potter was based here. 

Mudlarking Find:  Roman Samian Ware with Potters Stamp TAVRICIM. 

Samian ware or terra sigillata as it is sometimes referred to was first produced at the end of the  first century BC in Italy. By the mid 1st century AD, Gaul (modern day France & western Germany) had become the major producer. This pottery was produced and exported in vast quantities  throughout Europe and remained very popular for 250 years. At some point it was also produced on a smaller scale in Britain at Colchester and possibly London.  I can't quite comprehend how massive this industry was. There were 600 potters alone in La Graufesenque, one of the major sites of production in Gaul. The remains of one kiln measured 11.3m by 6.8m, the height an estimated 7 metres. With up to 9 internal storeys dismantled each time, the capacity is estimated at 30,000 - 40,000 vessels.  I wonder if Samian ware was the first mass produced fine table ware ever? It was refined but relatively cheap and used mainly for the presentation of food or display in its own right. 

Principal terra sigillata kiln sites(potshard.net) 

Samian ware can be plain or decorated. They look so modern because they were made in moulds. They shrank as they dried enabling fairly easy removal from the moulds. Their orangey glossy look is due to a bit of slip dipping, after which they were fired. Seemingly all rather controlled and organised there were standardised shapes and matching sets. 

South Gaulish Samian Ware showing standardisation of size (wiki)  

The decorated pieces are rather lovely. Animals and  figures depict myths and legends,  popular hunting or erotic scenes. Some fuse classical designs with native 'Gaul' traditions. As with those 19th century hunting jugs, particular designs are associated with individual potteries. The style of decoration changed over time, beginning with bands of decoration with a rather formal, precise style and ending with larger more freestyle designs. 

Decorated Samian Ware (Museum of London) 

Roman Barbotine Vessle 2nd C AD (Christies) 

Its longevity means there is tons of this stuff buried beneath us. A number of different classification systems arise from the years archaeologists have spent sorting, sifting, categorising and labelling this stuff. The potters stamps and decorative motives enable dating to within 20 years in some cases, hence samian ware with the right clues like clay pipes surrenders the date of a layer of finds. 

The rest of this particular day was characterised by tea bowls, I found yet another armorial pipe and this time coveted shard after shard of debased blue stoneware which I'm amassing with some notion of mosaic making. I was able to return Brian's 'piggy' glass seal, say goodbye to our lovely French ex archaeologist who is moving the States. I was lucky to meet Jim just before I left,  a follower of the blog,  who is over for a three week trip to the UK from the States with frequent mudlarking forages when he and his wife have time. I didn't quite remember Jim from followers on the blog, so it appears that wordpress followers don't show up on blogger. Interesting how many Americans make their way across the pond to do a bit of mudlarking.   

Another mudlarking haul

Ironically find of the day is another George III armorial pipe covered in this recent post, this time perfectly preserved. The crown tops the coat of arms, each element is perfect it in its minuteness, the three English lions roaring on top of each other with the Scottish lion on its tippitoes slightly to the right,  Irish harp, fleur de lys and so it goes on... the soot from the last lick of flames  200 years ago staining the front rim. 

Mudlarking find: Clay Pipe with George III Coat of Arms  

George III Coat of Arms used between 1760 - 1801

The lion and the unicorn caress the shield from the sides. Amazingly detailed, you can even see the chains surrounding the unicorn on the right below.  

Delighted to find a relief moulded medallion of George III, who seems to dominate the days finds. He was knocking around from to 1760 - 1820 the first Hanoverian king whose first language was English. Another reminder to the Tories that Britain has always been an island of immigrants. I've been on the look out for one of these for ages. This one is from a jug, mug or perhaps even a chamber pot made from white stoneware disparagingly referred to as debased scratch blue, at its height of popularity between 1765- 95 and covered in this earlier post.  

Mudlarking Find: George III medallion on debased scratch blue stoneware

Debased Scratch Blue Jug (ebay) 

I had fun hunting down the origin of this lovely little piece, my guess -  an acorn cup from 16th century German Rhenish stoneware, fortunately for me captured in Flegel's still lives . 

Mudlarking Find: Acorn Cup 16th Century Cologne Stoneware

Detail from Still life below (hogsheadwine) 

George Flegel Still life with Stag beetle 1635

The potters from Cologne were keen on their relief acorns and oak leaves in the first half of the 16th century before they moved to Freshen, the Cologne bartmann jugs seem to be particularly refined. 

A yummy bit of hand painted delftware, a bit posher than the pieces I usually find and the first shard I've found with carefully drawn highlighting white lines in the centre of the leaves. Can't find a delft plate on the web which is similar to this. 

Mudlarking Find Delftware 1560-1750

Couldn't resist this tiny bird imprisoned in its shard 

Mudlarking find: Transferware bird 

or the hand painted flowers in the base of this Georgian tea bowl

Mudlarking Find: Hand painted flowers in the base of a tea bowl. 

One antique site suggests this distinctive floral decoration with tadpole leaves and barb-hook ends derives from Liverpool tinglazed earthenware, but was then replicated in both Leeds and Staffordshire and similar to those depicted below 

Miniature Toy Tea cups and Saucers 1785 -1800 (antiqueszone) 

The moral of this next story is never let me look at your finds, I got home to find the glass seal  Brian thought he had lost had found its way into my bag! So before it's returned I thought it might as well feature here.  It would have sat proudly on the front of a 100 year+ wine bottle, is it a pig or an elephant on the front? 

Brian's glass seal 17th - 19th Century

R. White London Stoneware Bottles

A month ago, I found a large piece of stoneware pottery. As I bent down and flipped it over I was pleased to see writing and a picture underneath. 'R.Whites' sits above a stamped plaque of St George and the dragon, their 19th Century logo. 

Mudlarking Find R White trademark logo on Stoneware bottle  Circa 1894

As we stopped to show each other our finds another mudlarker said he'd spotted another Whites bottle and suggested I picked it up on my way back, so I did

Mudlarking Find: R Whites London Stoneware bottle 

In the 1840s Robert and Mary White started selling their home made ginger beer from a barrel in Camberwell in South London , made with 'the finest Jamaica Ginger and Refined Sugar only.. and cannot be surpassed for its warming and invigorating properties'. Their business grew rapidly. Their produce range expanded to include lemonade and mineral water and by 1869 R Whites had 5 factories and 16 depots in the Midlands and London. 

At some point they could afford to promote their brand via stoneware bottles. The lettering reminds me of J Bourne, covered in this earlier post and I think I read somewhere the bottles were produced in Bourne potteries. The bottles would have been recycled and reused, the ritual captured in an old London school kids rhyme

'R. White's ginger beer goes off pop; a penny on the bottle when you take it to the shop!'. 

R Whites Price List 1888 (British Library) 

Testaments from a court case at the old Bailey in 1894 give a glimpse into the stoneware bottles journey, or perhaps it refers to the glass bottles which came later. 

ALEXANDER SMITH , unlawfully selling two bottles of gingerbeer to which a trade mark was falsely applied. 

MR. HORACE AVORY. Prosecuted.

GEORGE SURTELL . I am an inspector of the Mineral Water Bottle Exchange Company, which was formed for the purpose of restoring bottles to mineral water manufacturers—if bottles get into wrong hands they are sent to the Exchange, sorted out and sent back to the original owners—on 29th July I found the prisoner standing with a barrow, on which was gingerbeer, in Acorn Street, Bishopsgate—I bought from him these two bottles of gingerbeer, each bearing the trade mark of R. White—I called the prisoner's attention to the trade mark—he said, "I make my own gingerbeer. I have brought bottles to the Exchange. I am also a dealer"—I examined the rest of the stuff on his barrow and found about seven dozen of gingerbeer, four dozen bearing the trade mark of R. White, and the remainder bearing the names of other well-known makers—two days afterwards I went to 58, Wentworth Street, a private house where the prisoner lives in one room—I saw a tub in the back yard and about ten dozen empty bottles, all bearing the names of different makers—I heard the prisoner before the Magistrate claim to be tried by a jury.

Cross-examined by the prisoner. I told the man with me to give you the money, and he gave you 2d.

HENRY CLEMENTS . I am a foreman to R. White and Sons, Limited, of Camberwell, one of the principal mineral water manufacturers in London—I produce the certificate of registration of their trade mark, "R. White," which appears on these bottles—I was with Surtell on 29th July when these two bottles were bought—they are White and Sons property; they are never sold—I have not examined the gingerbeer in the bottles, but by the way the bottles are corked I can tell they were not filled by White and Sons—these two bottles came from the prisoner's barrow—another man was standing there with a barrow at the same time; I purchased six bottles of him, and proceedings were also taken against him.

The prisoners statement before the Magistrate: "I wish Mr. White would protect his bottles a little better; I clean them for him and use them, and save them from being destroyed."

The prisoner in his defence stated that Messrs. White would not receive back their bottles if they were greasy; that he bought old stuff, and when he had enough of these bottles he sent them back.

HENRY CLEMENTS . Re-examined). We do not buy these bottles back; they are not allowed to be bought or sold.

GEORGE SURTELL . Re-examined). We allow twopence per dozen for bottles brought to the Exchange.

GUILTY .— Discharged on recognisances.

(Old Bailey On Line)

Over the years the company was merged, taken over and in the 1960s absorbed into Britvic, but R Whites lemonade lives on

Another Days Finds

Not the best day for finds, but here they are. Find of the day is a rather worse for wear clay pipe. It's taken me a long time to figure this one out as the details are so smudged out. Looked like it was a royal something with that preserved crown. I could make out three fleur de lys on the central shield, mottos circling and ribboned at the bottom and on the sides the buttocks and tails of a couple of animals presumably holding the whole thing up. 

Mudlarking Find Clay Pipe With Royal Coat of Arms

A couple of trips we just happened to plan for the next week helped out in my quest. As we entered the gates of Hampton Court with Janey and Megan I spotted the coat of arms on the gates of Hampton Court was a bit similar, and concluded the line and blobs on the bottom left of the pipe's shield were probably the woman's  curve on the Irish Harp and perhaps its top. 

Coat of Arms atop Hampton Court Gates

On our trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum with Gerry later that week, a great bunch of enthusiastic arty people were handing out drawing kits to kids so they could design their own coat of arms and on their stall was a book of heraldry. Interested in the mystery clay pipe from the Thames they worked out that it was probably the royal coat of arms, but which one? Having never been particularly interested in this previously, I didn't appreciate there was more than one. 

It's likely to be George III, the most recent monarch to include the French Fleur de lis, my history isn't good enough to throw light on why there is French  representation, it disappeared when George IV took the throne in 1820.  The red lion rearing in red border represents Scotland linked with England in the 1707 Act of union. My only reference point are the small paper flags  stuck into the sandcastles of our childhood. 

Royal Coat of Arms 1714- 1801 George II

The two beheaded rampant animals are probably the English Lion on the left and the Irish Unicorn on the right.  The writing is impossible to read, I assumed it would be Latin  but in fact its probably French. The words in the circle are likely to be 'Honi Soil Qui Mal Y Pense' 'Shamed be he who thinks evil of it' sometimes reinterpreted as 'Evil be to him who evil thinks'. 

George I  (middlesex-heraldry.org.uk) 

Decorated pipes became more common from the 1770s and the arms of George II were one of the common designs, so says one source anyway. 

Other finds are far more straight forward. A lovely pipe with minute perfectly rendered oak leaves running over the backbone of its bowl. 

Clay Pipe with Oak Leave 1830 -1900. 

Another Lion, this time it would have formed the centre of an armourial medallion on the side of german stoneware produced from between 1500- 1700. 

Mudlarking Find Lion from Freshen Stoneware 1485- 1700

Bartmann Jug with Lion and Crown Medallion Freshen 1551 - 1700 (Museum of London) 

My guess is the quickly hand painted top of a Chinese House which sat at the bottom of a bowl, is pearlware, but I could well be wrong. 

Mudlarking Find: Handpainted Chinese House decorating the bottom  of a  bowl

The next is definitely German Westerwald Stoneware, possibly from a small globular mug as shown below. The 400 year old rosettes in their sea of cobalt blue looking as though they were cast yesterday. 

Mudlarking Find:  Fragment of 17th C German Westerwald Stoneware 

17th Century Westerwald mug with moulded and applied rosettes (Crocker Farm) 

Finally my one of my favourites, naive hand painted delftware, the end of each leaf still marked by the brush that left it perhaps 400 years ago, maybe it wasn't such a bad day for finds after all.

Mudlarking Find: Delftware shard 1571-1800

St Giles Without Cripplegate

This was the find I was so pleased with a couple of months ago, I suspected it would lead me on an interesting journey & so it did.

It's a button, solid copper possibly originally silvered and likely to be a livery button, part of a uniform. The inscription ‘Firmin’s London’ on the back dates it to 1897 – 1904. The premier button maker Firmins was established in 1655, ended up supplying royalty and still holds contracts with the military in the UK and beyond to produce their buttons and badges.

Depicted on the front of the button is the now demolished Cripplegate, one of 7 gates set in the London wall, this one gave access to Islington. It began as a gate in a Roman Fort built in 126 AD, its northern and western walls were incorporated into the first London wall built a little later by the Romans. Cripplegate was rebuilt in medieval times, modified thereafter and finally pulled down in 1760 so the street could be widened. Controversy surrounds its name. It could be from ‘crepal’ the Anglo-Saxon term for an underground passage or covered way, others believe it originated from a monk’s claim that disabled beggars were cured as the body of St Edmund the Martyr was carried through the gate in 1010 on its way to Bury St Edmunds. It’s the more romantic later tale which people seem to have adopted, the only just perceptible person in the gateway on the button has crutches. 

Location of the old London gates (blarblarblarchitecture.com)

When I first entered the clear as anything words circling the button ‘St Giles Cripplegate without’ into google, up popped a church with the same name. We finally made it down there with Jen and Tian last week. Quite a find in itself, an old gem sitting amid the posh Barbican estate and surrounded by city high rises.

St Giles Without Cripplegate Church

Certainly a church with a history, over 1,000 years of it, imprinted on a stone tablet within the Church.

The 1000 Year History of St Giles Cripplegate

It tingles with 17^th century names even I am familiar with, Oliver Cromwell married here,  Milton author of Paradise Lost is buried here and John Bunyan author of  Pilgrims Progress attended the church. The Church was damaged by fire during the Blitz in 1940 which decimated the surrounding area, hence the building of the Barbican.

Cromwell

Milton

St Giles without Cripplegate a lone survivor in 1955 (colinspics)

As the name suggests the Church was built outside the walled city of London and the name ‘St Giles without Cripplegate’ is both the name of the Church and one of 25 wards in the City of London.

Inside the Church we met David Freeman who kindly showed us around. The exact same design on the button appeared on silver ‘badges’ and also topped a staff displayed in the Church. 

Cripplegate 

Perhaps the button belonged to a parish official, an Alderman, Ward Beadle the oldest elected office in the City of London or a Ward Clerk.

The Parish Beadle with Staff 1820-3 David Wilkie (Tate) 

It’s amazing where a Thames find can take you, David took out his large bunch of keys and guided us through locked gates and into the Barbican estate for a special tour of the remaining sheets of London wall that would have nudged up against Cripplegate  – brilliant!

Remains of the London Wall at Cripplegate 

More remains of the London Wall