Finished

Seven months later and it's finished. Hour upon happy hour ensconced in the shed, slowly assembling this manifestation of mudlarking passion. Immersed in music in a way I haven't had the luxury of doing since I was a teenager, from opera to Rudimental, I've been in heaven. 

Whilst the mosaic is essentially a copy of  Emma Bigg's mudlarking mosaic, as I became more confident I've gone off piste, keeping religiously to her pattern but improvising. The most daring is this central slash of green glazed shards surrounding a wave of glass bottle tops and bottoms, some possibly dating from the 16th Century, although more likely from 17th century onwards. The oldest thing on the board is probably a deeply incised section of strap handle likely to have been made in Kingston in medieval times.

I had to slip in a few mudlarking classics. No mudlarking mosaic could be complete without a gurning Bartmann face, slotted in another section of salt glazed stoneware, 

originating from one of these. 

Saltglazed Bartmann Jug 1485-1714 Freshen Germany (Museum of London) 

Tucked in a corner above the creamware teapot spouts is the foot of a pipkin or skillet, still dusted with smoke from the charcoal it sat upon hundreds of years ago, with a smidgen of green glaze, the earliest form of coloured glaze used in Britain. 

It perhaps graced the bottom of a vessel similar to this

Surrey Hampshire ware skillet 1566-1700 (Museum of London) 

Elsewhere are the tops of green Tudor pottery money boxes used to collect entrance fees to theatres and some archetypal naive hand painted delft patterns, 

probably made in London and likely to have come from dishes akin to this

London Delft Dish 1680 (Christies) 

A mudlarking mosaic didn't seem quite right without one more section of delft, this time the more unusual polychrome type.

A cat's paw print caught forever in a medieval tile is fenced in by twisted creamware handles, possibly from a teapot. 

Or perhaps from something really posh like this punch pot or a Wedgwood melon tureen. 

Creamware Punch Pot 1765-1780 (historic new england) 

Right at the top are those marvelous shards  of iridescent glass you find along the Thames, their patina the sign of glass aged by several centuries. 

Tantalising snatches of writing on stoneware give clues to their story, a collection of ink pots, German mineral bottles, a Whites lemonade bottle and a few mysteries.   

To my surprise transferware is only marginally represented. A line of my favourite floral fragments highlights a row of clay pipe bowls standing to attention, with my collection of bartmann beards beneath. 

The early morning sun flooding through the shed windows illuminates the bottoms of three delft drug jars from the 17th century interspersed with large sections of dining plates, 

jars which would have looked something like this, 

London Delft Drug Jar 1650 - 1700 (Christies) 

So here it is, propped up against the shed wall. Fragments from around 1,500 objects belonging to 1,500 people living in London or visiting, over 7 centuries. Some treasured some hardly noticed, between them travelling hundreds of thousands of miles, telling stories of trade, human innovation and technical advancement, fashion and our desire for beautiful things. 

Mudlarking Mosaic - 3/4 way through

Visually this pipe section would have looked better if I'd orientated the pipes so they cascaded in a more higglety pigglety way with their bowl mouths open to the viewer, as in Emma Bigg's original mosaic. Instead illuminating the history won out. Lined up in date order lie 50% of the types of clay pipe produced. Starting with the small ones from the 1610 on the right and ending with the large spurred pipes made until the 1840s, positioned so it's easy to see their development over the centuries. Their spurs, different types of feet with or without initials  are all exposed.  I couldn't quite bring myself to cement in any of my decorated relief pipes. 

And then the view from the top, which once on the wall will never be seen. 

Rather chuffed how this line of Westerwald turned out, its deep cobalt blue creating such  a strong impression. The epitome of German domination of 17th and early 18th Century European ceramics, with its precise moulded reliefs and careful incised patterns executed by hand and perfectly glazed.

To the right, purposely included one of the drilled mother of pearl 'shards' I've picked up along the Thames, in this section of iridescent discarded worked pieces. 

The Westerwald shards most likely came from tankards and jugs

Westerwald Jug 1702-1714  with moulded relief design (prices4antiques)

Westerwald Mug 17th C (Crocker Farm) 

Westerwald Jug circa 1730 with incised patterns made by hand (Martyn Edgell) 

Again copying Ms Biggs mosaic, I've included a row of large chunks of 19th century utilitarian English stoneware, the remains of ink bottles and other storage vessels. The impressed writing reveals a Derbyshire bottle produced by Bourne (a longer post on this can be found here) and the neat lettering of Stephen Green's Imperial Pottery in Lambeth, the centre of English saltglazed stoneware pottery from the mid 17th - mid 19th century.

'The imperial pottery in Princes Street Lambeth places Mr Stephen Green amongst the foremost.. The variety of its productions comprises jugs, garden vases and figures, water pipes, filtering machines and vessels for chemical purposes..About seventy persons are employed on the premises; and the consumption of materials amounts to one thousand tons of clay, one hundred of sand, twenty tons of burnt flint and Cornwall stone, twelve tons of salt and eight hundred tons of coal annually...The business was begun nearly 60 years ago' (E W Brayley 1841).

I haven't been able to track down the the origin of 'Waterlow London'. 

Complete Bourne Ink Bottle (Museum of London) 

The hand painted blue and red laced with gold, Japanese Imari porcelain (1650-1750) is scattered through this next section. A previous post about its history can be found here.

and to end - a large chunk of the will be finished in another month or so mosaic. 

Mudlarking Mosaic - Half Way There

As a child I knew every picture in every book in my childhood home, every object in every cupboard, every ornament in my grandparent's house. I was particularly captivated by detail and if there was some secret to be found in an image even better. So it's been enjoyable piecing together sections of mosaic with a few secrets of their own. In one section close inspection reveals the relief tongue flicking and roaring lions of Westerwald jugs and chamber pots. 

Produced in Germany from the 16th Century. They were imported to England in volume. These little beasties were probably impressed between 1650 - 1700.

Westerwald Chamber Pot 17th C (Croker Farm)

Westerwald Jug (Christies) 

More intricate details can be found in the sections of salt glazed stoneware, largely originating from medallions on Bartmann Jugs again imported in huge quantities from Germany, often holding wine. By 1600 100,000 pieces of German Stoneware were imported into Britain a year, when the population of London was only 200,000 and Britain's population was under 5 million. 

Bellarmine (or Bartmann Jug) C 1580 (Martyn Edgell) 

A watery mosaic needs a few boats, in this instance topped by a sky of small shards of flowered flow blue, a type of transfer ware where the cobalt blue 'flows' into the white body, produced from 1820. 

Next onto the really tricky bit, well tricky if you don't possess or haven't found the right equipment to cut clay pipes in half or in sections. Unfortunately very easy to shatter, so these sections take ages, but I love their effect. No credit can come to me as again I'm just copying Emma Brigg's mosaic. 

I did manage one innovation however. I couldn't have created a mudlarking mosaic without mother of pearl, found in abundance in one section of the foreshore. There must have been one or more workshops set up along the Thames to inlay the mollusc's creamy secretions into furniture or jewelry. The photo doesn't quite do it justice as you can imagine when it catches the light it's blooming lovely. The long ribbon of pipes and cream ceramic above took a mind boggling three days to put together. 

And finally another 'chunk' coming together.

Back to work next week, I'm going to miss my long absorbing shed sessions. 

Mudlarking Mosaic - a quarter of the way through.

There are around 90 sections in this mosaic and I'm about a quarter of the way through. Fortunately it continues to be a pleasure and I become so absorbed I enter into what the psychologists call 'flow', the road to a happiness.

Beginning with another of my favourites, Chinese export porcelain. So as not to feel too much of a vandal I tried to keep snipping to a minimum so it was a a jigsaw puzzle task. The first are my larger pieces.

The second much smaller ones. 

This stuff was imported to Europe from around 1550 and declined in popularity from the late 18th century when Staffordshire ceramics became de rigueur. A longer post can be found here. The first handle less tea bowls were made of Chinese export porcelain and captured in several eighteenth century family portraits. Did they end up in the Thames?

An English Family at Tea 1725 (Joseph Van Aken)

Chinese export porcelain also features in those lovely dutch still lives.

Still Life With Turkey Pie by Pieter Claesz 1625(Rijksmuseum) 

Chunky shards with the seaweed patterns of Mochaware produced from 1792 - 1850 are squashed into the next section. A previous post on Mochaware can be found here.

A popular ceramic for jugs, bowls, chamber pots and salts. 

Mochaware Mustard Pot 1800s (ebay) 

The first pottery I spotted along the Thames was Staffordshire Combed Slipware. I assumed it was Victorian and amazed when I found out it could originate from 1690 - this was the pottery that started my fascination with the Thames and the secrets it holds. 

Utilitarian it was primarily used in baking dishes, although I've also included a marble ware piece, probably from a cup. 

Staffordshire Combed Slipware Baking Dish 1790-1800 (John Howard) 

Another ceramic from Georgian England, banded or annular ware from 1770s - 1840 covered in more detail here.

The  relief mouldings lift this section of creamware. First produced in 1750 and remaining popular until 1840 it was a cheaper substitute for Chinese export porcelain. 

Tucked in the centre are a couple of floret and leaf terminals which may well have decorated the base of jug handles such as the one below. 

Creamware Water Jug 18th Century (John Howard) 

No mudlarking mosaic would be complete without the ubiquitous clay pipe>

And finally a few shots of what at the moment is the tour de force, remembering virtually none of this is my own design, just a pure copy of someone else's masterpiece.