Archaeological Finds

[YnysMon]

Hi everyone,

I had mentioned on Timbo's Tudor Rose restoration thread that my son Alec came home yesterday with some objects that he found when working on a landscaping project for Newton Prep School in Battersea.  Alec thinks there were previously Victorian buildings on the site, which I assume must have been demolished at some stage. I promised to post some photos but didn't want to hijack Timbo's thread further, so here they are.  There's the decorated bowl of a pipe and two pottery fragments.  As well as posting photos of the glaze I've also taken a side on view as I though it interesting that the colour of the underlying pottery is so different. 

I'm not sure whether posting lots of photos in one post is a problem, so just in case I'll limit each post to one item, starting with the pipe.  Isn't the decoration beautiful!

Helen

[YnysMon]

...and here's the fragment of blue glazed ware...

 

[YnysMon]

...and a fragment decorated with a fish.

 

[grendel]

I wonder if the carved pipe bowl is actually soapstone? its lovely stuff to carve, I have hand carved moulds to cast pewter belt fittings. you can carve it with a penknife.

[YnysMon]

I don't think I've come across soapstone before, but that seems quite likely.  The carving is so fine.

Helen

[Timbo]

Pottery is not my thing at all...it takes a certain kind of twisted fruit loop to specialise in bits of pot that all look identical, I've known quite a few and remain friendly with a couple,  but the pipe is a fine example of a 19th-century redware clay pipe, possibly a promotional item of its time, sold or given away by a publican or brewery. It does bear quite a few similarities to the Indigenous American Indian Trade Pipes in its shape...almost as though someone has 'refined' and 'Europeanised' the design. Originally it would have had a wooden pipe stem. Definitely clay though Grendel, as to spend hours carving such an intricate design onto what is effectively a disposable item, would be a bit of an ask.