The ceramic art of Great Britain from pre-historic times down to the present day, Volume 1 (of 2) : $b being a history of the ancient and modern pottery and porcelain works of the kingdom and of their productions of every classJewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
History
The ceramic art of Great Britain from pre-historic times down to the present day, Volume 1 (of 2) : $b being a history of the ancient and modern pottery and porcelain works of the kingdom and of their productions of every class
Jewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
Pottery, British -- History
At Wilderspool, the presumed site of _Condate_, an outskirt of
Warrington, evidence exists which warrants the supposition that pottery
of various kinds was there made by the Romans. A large quantity of
fragments, including many interesting examples, have been collected
by Dr. Kendrick and placed in the museum at Warrington; these include
many well-known varieties of Roman wares, and some which are peculiar
to the place; among these are excellent examples of “engine-turned”
bowls, in which the engine-turning is surmounted by scoriated ornament;
these are in red clay. Of Durobrivian ware were found portions of a
bowl with overhanging rim, ornamented with the ivy-leaf pattern in
slip; on one portion is a potter’s mark, PAT, which has been
impressed on the side. Of imitation, or English, Samian, are several
fragments, with relief ornaments, some of which are pretty close
copies of the true Samian, while others are rather clumsy adaptations
of the Samian borders, &c. Examples of Upchurch ware were also found.
The wares which seem to be peculiar to Wilderspool, and which were,
there is every reason to believe, made there, are the two varieties
engraved on Figs. 184 and 185, and the “rough-cast” ware, of which a
small vessel found by myself at Headington, and engraved on Fig. 179,
will serve as an example. Fig. 184 is of a light red clay, which has
been surface-coloured. It is ornamented with a mammal ornament--a
series of raised circles, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter,
dying off in their lower half, and having a knob or nipple in the
centre. This has evidently been the ornament of the upper part of a
vessel, the lower being engine-turned in diagonal lines. Fig. 185
is of a dark-coloured clay, with a similar kind of ornament, but of
much smaller size, the discs being only rather more than a quarter
of an inch in diameter. The “rough-cast” ware, as this variety (Fig.
179) has been appropriately named by Dr. Kendrick, is a fine kind of
red-ware, the vessels in which, after having been “thrown,” have, while
in their soft, moist state, been powdered all over with small bits of
dry clay, and then dipped in thin slip before firing--the roughness
having previously been carefully removed from the rims and other parts
which were intended to be left plain. Dr. Kendrick claims this to be
hitherto “unnoticed, and therefore undescribed;” but here he is in
error, for in 1850[24] I described a similar ware--the only fragment
then known--which I discovered at Headington (Fig. 179), that example
being, perhaps, a little finer and of better quality than the present
Wilderspool specimens.
[Illustration: Figs. 187 and 188.--Tetinæ, Wilderspool.]
Another variety of ornament, supposed by Dr. Kendrick to be unique, is
on a hard bluish-grey ware; it is a series of patches of fine lines
scratched into the surface, as though done by a fine comb or a hard
brush.
[Illustration: Fig. 189.--Wilderspool.]
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