Norton Priory: The Archaeology of a Medieval Religious House. J. Patrick Greene. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989. xii + 167 pp., figures, bibliography, index. ’60.00 (cloth) (original) (raw)
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Bow and A marked porcelain A tangible link from the Stratford East London site
The rare “A” marked porcelains have for some time been associated with the Bow first patent of Heylyn and Frye although conclusive documentary evidence has not been found. This paper examines a teapot lid matching “A” marked pieces which was found during excavations at Stratford and it’s possible links to the Bow first patent wares. By J.V. Owen (first author) and Nicholas Panes. English Ceramic Circle Transactions, Volume 23, 2012.
Precious-metal effigial tomb monuments in medieval Europe 1080-1430
The aim of this joint project is to offer a survey of extant and lost medieval effigial tomb monuments made of different types of metal, ranging from copper alloy (often termed ‘bronze’) to silver and silver gilt. The findings already change the way we will henceforth view these tombs: for example, the survival of predominantly royal cast copper-alloy tombs in England has previously been misinterpreted as their being a ‘royal predilection’, whereas nearly twice that number were commissioned by patrons among the nobility and higher clergy. The project is a continuation of the authors' earlier work, including the joint article ‘The tomb monument of Katherine, daughter of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence (1253-7)’ published in The Antiquaries Journal, 92 (2012), pp. 169-196. Our initial survey has now been published in the peer-reviewed journal Church Monuments 30 (2015), pp. 7-105. A second article entitled ‘Copper-alloy tombs in medieval Europe: image, identity and reception’, has been accepted for publication in Jean Plumier and Nicolas Thomas (eds), Medieval copper, bronze and brass, Proceedings of the 2014 Dinant/Namur conference (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming). However, an inventory such as this is never finished so we welcome all new information about examples discussed in our 2015 paper or about new discoveries not yet included there. The work simply continues and may in due course result in a second article, while there is also the possibility of continuing the research into the later fifteenth century to include such examples as the extant monument to Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1439), or the output of the famous Vischer workshop in Nuremberg.
Iron Age Antiques: Assessing the functions of old objects in Britain from 400BC to AD100
Objects of the Past in the Past: Investigating the significance of earlier artefacts in later contexts, 2019
Old objects found in later prehistoric contexts have often been discussed by archaeologists as heirlooms, which were passed between people, forming powerful mnemonic devices in prehistoric histories or contributing to the maintenance of hereditary power. This paper examines ideas about later prehistoric heirlooms and other categories of curated objects, before suggesting that some old objects might also be considered as ‘antiques’: objects whose values are derived not only through the ancestral connections they might embody, but through their own patinas of age. A case study from Middle–Late Iron Age East Yorkshire will demonstrate the accumulation of value through the fostering of objects with visible layers of age and use.
Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Conservation practice, material exploration and their respective 'scientific' rationales were not confined to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They also existed in the early modern and modern periods. The papers in this special issue seek to challenge the idea that these types of physical and intellectual interactions with collected objects only emerged in the Industrial Age. Great scientific advances in conservation and related materials analysis were made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by various museum directors, conservators and chemists, and with them the evolution of prominent conservation theories. But these achievements have become disproportionately represented in the growing literature on the history of conservation and have served to dominate the narrative. 1 The idea for this special issue developed from a one-day online conference held in 2021, organized by Morwenna Blewett at the Ashmolean Museum. Lucy Wrapson chaired a panel session and made closing remarks, drawing together the interrelationships between seven diverse papers, which tackled the preservation of art and material culture at a wide range of places and dates. The papers highlight the themes that were right at the heart of the early development of the Ashmolean Museum in the seventeenth century, and were so very clearly in train the century before. Among them are: material investigation; preservation; debates around damage; deterioration; loss compensation; documentation; and the very function and purpose of conservation and preservation. All these considerations motivated interpositions that were certainly not 'unscientific'. The shadow of achievements in the history of conservation history, stemming from the nineteenth century, serves to cement and provide a compelling origin story, particularly for those who played a traceable and autobiographical part in those events. And, if we look closely, we can see this tendency emerging in the comments of some of the indisputably accomplished figures of the twentieth century. A typical example comes as late as 1978, when Harold Plenderleith, the chemist, archaeologist and conservator who had worked at
Commemoration is rarely linked to invention in studies of funerary monuments; the value of artistic conservatism in expressing ideas of continuity and lineage is emphasized instead. While this may be the case for many medieval tombs, a unique monument in the collegiate church of St. Martin at Lowthorpe challenges this notion. The tomb depicts a tree growing from the recumbent effigies of a man and a woman, each of its thirteen branches sprouting a miniature, individualized human head. This article confronts the novelty and inventiveness of the memorial, considering what it might reveal about the mechanisms and purposes of artistic invention in fourteenth-century England. Examining ideas of influence, models, agency, and patronage, I argue that the innovative design at Lowthorpe should be understood as the product of collaboration among lay patrons, sculptors, and ecclesiastics in founding an ambitious ecclesiastical institution. Turning from the processes to the purposes of invention, I propose that the strangeness of the tomb enhanced its function as a focal point for remembrance, its polyvalent arboreal imagery representing and reinforcing the complex web of familial, institutional, and liturgical relationships within the college. Full text at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/ges/current