Another early mudlark

Here's a few finds from my last mudlark. It was good to meet two other early mudlarkers Teri and Jason. This little transfer picture from the bottom of a  bowl was my first find. I believe brown was used in transfer ware from 1809.

Mudlarking Find: Transfer ware bowl bottom.

A bit battered and worn, but you can still make out the birds with open wings which decorate either side of this clay pipe from the nineteenth century. Apparently this design is called the spread eagle, although presumably referencing the stance rather than the species as the neck, beak and legs seem far too long for an eagle. 

By the mid nineteenth century there was a least one maker of iron tobacco pipe moulds in London, so the same designs were produced by different pipe makers across the county. This one was a popular 'type' and produced in many forms especially in Sussex.

The spine is perhaps the best preserved, the wing tips and tail feathers meeting the splayed run of leaves. 

Mudlarking Find: Spread Eagle Clay Pipe 19th C. 

There is a very distinctive pipe makers mark on the spur, which I haven't been able to match with a specific producer. 

Clay Pipe Star Makers Mark 19th C. 

A rather lovely hand painted tree, probably late 18th Century. 

This little object (around 2cm square) appears to be a small mould, not quite sure whether it is clay or stone. What was it for I wonder?

Mudlarking Find: Small mould?

I don't usually put up pictures off all the ceramic shards I squirrel away, but thought I would this week

Mudlarking Finds: Worcester Porcelain Dr Wall period 1751-1783

and the rest of them from left to right 
Bartmann Beard  and then a bit of Bartmann face German salt glazed stoneware 1550- 1700, black transferware
Delftware, Imari Porcelain from 1650, Westerwald Stoneware Lion probably around 1675.
Delfware probably from a drug jar 1600-1700, hand painted pratt ware colours, Westerwald 1675 and two other hand painted shards. 

and  find of the day, which was Jason's not mine, large (around 15cm in length) carved stone with what seems to be the remains of render or plaster. Is it medieval? One for the Museum of London to look at. 

Mudlarking find: Medieval carved stone? 

The reverse

Lastly my favourite, balanced on the tip of my finger, a very small  mudlarking china man 

Mudlarking Find: Mudlarking China Man

Mudlarking Mosaic - progress

Every spare hour I've had I've skipped out into our shed, flicked on the fairy lights and CD player and lost track of time pondering, snipping and shuffling ceramic. Pleasure is deepened when the rain hits the corrugated iron roof and the wind gusts outside. 

And here are the first results.  

I started off with the relief moulded surrounds of Staffordshire white salt glazed stoneware plates, first produced in block moulds in 1740. They were the first home made refined tableware which didn't chip (unlike delftware). Expensive but I assume cheaper than the imported Chinese porcelain and very fashionable in their day.  Standards patterns were used to decorate the edges,  'barley' or 'basket' and the 'dot, diaper and basket' all of which are in the section below, the 'feather' design I've used elsewhere. By 1750 white salt glazed stoneware  caused the demise of the delftware industry, but by 1760 it was itself superceded by creamware and pearlware. 

Mudlarking Mosaic White Salt Glazed Stoneware from Staffordshire 1740 onwards

Dot, Diaper and basket English Saltglazed Plate C 1760 (Spode Ceramics.com) 

Staffordshire Salt Glazed Soup Tureen C 1760 (live auctioneers) 

The age of this stuff is brought home when you realise the people eating off these plates wore wigs, corsets, lace caps and big satin dresses. 

A British Family Served with Tea 1745 artist unknown (b-womeninamericanhistory)

and that they were used in a London which was far smaller 

John_Rocque's_Map_of_London 1746 (Wiki)

In keeping with mosaic design I'm plagiarising, on the right I laid out a more textured section using the bottoms  of bowls and plates, a mixture of white salt glazed stoneware, porcelain and creamware. My first veer away from the mosaic I'm following is the central section which is comprised of one of my favourites, debased scratched blue stoneware produced from 1765-95. Inky cobalt dissolves across the edges of the incised abstract leaves and flowers. Again very fashionable but it seems only for a short period. The bottom shard on the left has just a weenie bit of a medallion, a little secret tucked away in the corner of a rectangle. 

Mudlarking Mosaic from L to R Mocha ware, debased scratched blue and plate bottoms

Then onto modifying my original wave of blue shell  edged pearlware, easy to find along the foreshore as it was produced in volume from 1780 -1840. It was relatively cheap and consequently owned by most reasonably comfortable households across England and the States. The name derives from the scallop like edge mouldings which in earlier versions were carefully painted with blue in downward brushstrokes, in later cheaper versions pottery workers cut corners and just painted a stripe of blue along the edge. 

Mudlarking Mosaic Shell Edged Pearlware 1780-1840

Blue Edged Pearlware Dish Joshua Health circ 1790 (Martyn Edgell) 

Unfortunately I haven't enough of the white and blue slip bands which sometimes decorated mocha ware jugs, what a shame -  I'll have to keep mudlarking. Mocha ware is less old dating from between 1792-1850, taking us into Victorian London.

Mudlarking Mosaic Mocha Ware Bands

By 1850 London had expanded hugely

London in the 1850s (Wiki) 

and fashions were rather more relaxed and comfortable although still look so different from our times - it seems strange they would be in possession of a 1950s looking jug. 

An English Merry-Making, a Hundred Years Ago circa 1846 William Frith (V&A)  

Family Portrait in a Conservatory
H.R. Miller, 1850 (V&A) 

and then on to the a far more trickier section of bowl bottoms, sitting above the 1950s shed carpet. 

Werra slipware, from Germany 1550-1650

I thought I’d identified most of the decorative pottery you can find along the Thames, so I was thrilled to find a new type. It was a treat to be back in detective mode, the UK finds database gave me the first lead  - ‘werra slipware’. It was this unusually large shard which prompted me to search 

Mudlarking Find: Werra Slipware 1550-1650

and interesting to find a dish which had a similar boarder design. 

Werra Slipware with Rabbit 1607 (Dr Fischer)

Werra Slipware was produced in Germany in potteries along the Werra River between 1550 – 1650. It was widely exported from the port of Breman and has been found in quantities in the low countries, North America and East and Southern England where finds are  concentrated in coastal and urban areas. 

Red bodied earthenware was decorated with a distinctive pale greenish yellowy slip - a thin clay mixture. The decoration tends to follow a standard format divided into zones. 

Dashes and lines were quickly struck around the rim of the plate. The potter then expertly looped thin bands of slip spiraling inwards. A wide band of swirls and squiggles forms a boarder followed by another set of bands which frame a central motif. Rather random  bright green splashes of copper oxide provide highlights in the centre and surrounding areas. 

Werra Slipware Plate with Pig/Boar 1615 (Museum Rotterdam) 

The central drawing is skillfully etched into the slip, a technique called sgraffito. Being a Werra potter was a tricky business, there was no room for error or second goes. Any mistake would be obvious. 

Animals or figures usually filled the centre. I love these confident, naive, bold, quirky pictures. I can't help think of our wonderful Grayson Perry (whose current Reith lectures on art are not be missed, link here.) when I look at these masterly drawings on pottery. 

Werra Angel 1613 (Museum Rotterdam)

Detail of Werra Slipware Horse (Museum Rotterdam) 

Werra Slipware Nobel Man on Horse back 1621 (Museum Rotterdam) 

Werra Ware with Dove 1585-1625 (Museum Rotterdam) 

I had picked up a few small pieces of these drawings over the last few months and noticed one or two appearing on other mudlarkers sites. I'd realised how different they were from anything else I'd found but thought they just came from one eccentric plate. My favourite is what I hope is a little bit of angel. 

Mudlarking Find: An angel? wing Werra Slipware 1550-1650. 

They were very keen on their angels

Werra Ware 1615

a couple of indecipherable shards I've found, but now I look at the second one, I wonder if the top right markings are 'I8' the second half of a date. Most plates seem to be dated and  it appears to be in the right place. 

Mudlarking finds: Werra Ware 1550-1650

Werra Slipware with Adam and Eve 1595 (Dr Fischer)

I was prompted to look through my box of slipware shards and pulled out a few more pieces of Werra Ware.

Mudlarking Finds: Werra Slipware 1550-1650

Mudlarking Find - Werra? slipware 

There is no doubt that Germany was the European ceramic market leader in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was where stoneware was perfected along with those deep cobalt blue and manganese purple glazes of Westerwald together with these ambitious slipware and sgraffito beauties.

 And finally a couple of Grayson Perry pots

. 

An Early Mudlark

Up and out before 7am, daylight was just emerging. Strings of headlights were already making their way along the main road. In the distance three tall boxes of light came into view, one of them my bus. Fabulous London where you rarely have to wait more then a couple of minutes for your bus to turn up.

There is something so comforting about the familiar rocking, humming, hissing and rattling of the London bus as it gently judders you to your destination. 

The bus was full of the stillness and hush of early commuters. Just the occasional cough or turning of a page as we crept into the city. The sunrise tinged the grey clouds orangey pink. 

I was surprised I wasn't the first down on the Thames, another regular had beat me to it, but for the next couple of hours we were the only ones down there. Each absorbed in our little world of mudlarking pleasure. 

I spent the first hour methodically and very, very slowly searching one patch of ground, hoping to find the small and metal. Not much luck, although I did spot my first  tiny blue glass bead which I suspect are very difficult to date and a fly button. 

Mudlarking finds: Glass bead and fly button circled with 'Best Ring Edge'

I spotted one of the oldest pipes I've found so far, the small one at the top with a milled edge is from 1610-1640 pictured next to one from 1700-1770 to show the difference in size, as tobacco decreased in price clay pipes grew larger. 

Mudlarking Finds: R - L Clay pipes from 1700-1770 and 1610-1640

The second hour was the usual casual beach combing when the pottery catches my eye. More of the same but pleased with this very large piece of Werra slipware which was imported from Germany between 1550- 1650

Mudlarking Find:  German Werra Slipware 1550-1650

and this enormous section of what I suspect is a Roman box flue tile, covered in this earlier post, found where one of London's disappeared rivers, the Walbrook trickles into the Thames. Londinium was built up on either side of the Walbrook.

Mudlarking Find: Roman Box Flue Tile

I gathered up three boats which had punted off their plates 

Mudlarking Finds: Transferware boats 

and here's a reminder of the poximity of the sea, sadly he was no longer alive. 

and lastly what I mainly came down for and found in abundance as very few people want these broken bits of plain creamware and stoneware, which I'm going to need in bucket loads for that darned mosaic. 

Back on the bus, front seat at the top all the way home. Looking forward to a bacon sarnie and mug of tea. 

Mudlarking Mosaic - the beginning

I'm good at ideas but rubbish at execution. So it will take gargantuan effort for me to ever finish this thing and sadly most of the time it feels more of a burden than a pleasure, I'm hoping that will change as I get into it. 

Ever since I started mudlarking I've wanted to make something from all those bits of pottery. I came across a mosaic made of foreshore finds which I absolutely loved and knowing I couldn't better the design I settled on pure plagiarism, albeit rather ambitious for someone who hasn't made anything since primary school. 

Tania Covo the wonderful Thames jeweller told me what equipment to buy to get me stared, by enjoyable happen chance, she had worked with the mosaic artist I'm copying and assured me she wouldn't mind. 

So printed photos, ordered the equipment and pulled out my first set of pottery pieces, the ubiquitous shell edged pearl ware (1780- 1840)  with its blue edging, the relief decorated edges of white stone ware plates(1720-1780)  and the more yellowy cream ware popular from 1760. 

and had a go at a section of the design to see if I could 'do it', far from  perfect but good enough for me to pursue 

then did a bit more 

so decided to get serious and bought a book and  went to the wood shop. Realising that I would never get it together to put the wood together into a frame, my very kind husband took it down to a local carpenter and brought back a large 44" x 45" frame.

Created a template from the photo, blew it up on a photocopier, copied the design onto tracing paper on both sides, so that I could then transfer it onto the board. 

By this time I'd been banished to our party shed with all my 'stuff', so with Black Eyed Peas blasting out and youngest ensconced with his nintendo on a sofa nearby to keep me company, I finally marked out the design in pen. 

 priming and buying tile cement tomorrow - then I suppose I'd better get on with it.