New Light on the Luck of Edenhall (original) (raw)
The Harrow Chalice: Early Glass or Early Fake?
The haematinon bowl from Pydna. Height 5.5 cm. © 27 th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Greece. The bowl (skyphos) is discussed in the paper by Despina Ignatiadou ' A haematinon bowl from Pydna' , p. 69.
Early medieval glass smoothers as a manifestation of the spread of Christianity in Mainland Europe
Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2022
Archaeology has been attempting to explain the purpose of medieval hemispherical artefacts called glass smoothers, found in much of Europe, for a century and a half. The oldest and most widespread opinion considers them to be tools designed for the care of clothing. This article presents the results of SEM observations of the surface of selected specimens. The identification of streaks of non-ferrous, especially precious metals, shows that they were intended for another purpose. After discussing the anthropological contexts, including burial finds, the authors conclude that glass smoothers were developed and primarily intended for gilding murals with metal leaves. The inertness of glass to mercury also made it possible to use these artefacts in another method of gilding – amalgamation. It was the contact with precious metal that justified the transformation of a glass smoother on the occasion of a funeral from a working tool into an object with symbolic value. Therefore, the occurre...
Medieval glass vessels in England AD 1200-1500 : a survey
1996
The Balkans, and perhaps the area north of the Alps, and the Italian glassmakers working in Corinth, also used blue trailing on colourless glass (see pp. 29-30). Type A14: Colourless glass goblet with painted enamel decoration on the bowl. A shallow colourless bowl with enamelled decoration on both surfaces was excavated at Cheapside House in London. The painted scene depicts a robed figure \\"ith a raised hand, on a green circular background, with other quatrefoil motifs within the border. The border is surrounded by a white dotted line, common on later Venetian enamelled glass. It is believed that the vessel was originally stemmed. Similar enamelled bowls on high stems include a goblet from Prague, with heraldic symbols and shields, and line and dotted border, with a comparable rim diameter of 12.4 cm (Baumgartner and Krueger 1988, 156-8, No. 116). Another enamelled bo\vL possibly originally stemmed, is known from Basel Museum (ibid.,. This also depicts a robed and cloaked figure, with a blue background and gilt stars, and Islamic style decorative motifs in the surrounding border. A large number of beakers with enamelled decoration of this style are known throughout England and Europe, including a large group from Foster Lane. also in Cheapside. Documentary evidence confirms the production of enamelled drinking vessels in Venice and Murano during the late 13th to mid-14th centuries (B21). Enamelled stemmed goblets are much more unusual than beakers. Type A15: Colourless-greenish goblet with vertically sided bowl with external double-fold below rim, and wry then trail around basal angle of bowl. Late 13th to Early 15th Century. No parallels are known from this goblet from King's Langley, made of greenish glass, with vertical sides, with an external double fold just below the rim, and a wrythen trail applied around the basal angle. Charleston recalled a double fold found on two medieval glass vessels from Escaladieu, north of the Pyrenees. but no further evidence of similarities can be traced (Charleston 1974. 67-8). It is therefore not possible to suggest where this vessel might have been made. The context from King's Langley provides a date of between the late 13th and early 15th century. Opaque blue glass goblets have been excavated from London, Leicester and York. The) belong to the Venetian style of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. These vessels are often highly decorated with gilt and enameL and used as ceremonial goblets. or to commemorate special events such as marriages (see p. 138). A fragment \vith mouldblown vertical ribs from a bowl or goblet bowl from York belongs to this Venetian style, but no further features of the original vessel are known. Type A16.1: Blue glass goblet bowl with vertical mould-blown vertical ribbing and applied pincered trail around basal angle. Late 15th Century. Fragments from the bowl of a translucent blue goblet from Leicester show a deep bowl with veltical sides. with vertical mould-blown ribs. and an applied pincered trail around the basal angle. This style is also found on beakers and bowls of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Colourless beakers \\ith similar vertical mould-blown ribs and a pincered foot-ring around the angular basal angle are published from Brilgge. and the diocese of Chur. They are attributed to 15th century Belgium. and Venice around 1500 GA7 Friern Hay, Exeter, Devon. Three fragments from the lower part of goblet bowl(s), with a mould-blown fm on each. Largest fragment e. 2.1 em long, with the base of the fin protruding 6 mm from the wall of the goblet bowl. Context: [F267-ll] Context dates not known.
Post-Medieval Archaeology, 2006
Saxon pits and 17th-and 18th-century construction phases. The latter sequence comprised the remains of two builds of cellars associated with tenements at Duke's Court, a former street on the northern side of the Royal Mews. An exceptional collection of glassware and tin-glazed plates was recovered from these cellars. It must have come from prosperous households and documents an early and significant stage in the development of English glass manufacture. The paper examines the glass and associated finds from the post-medieval features. in the Westminster area have uncovered Iron-Age pits, ditches and timber revetments dated to c. 540 BC. Roman evidence is also fairly sporadic, but includes the discovery of a sarcophagus and, more recently, a tile kiln below the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields church. This and other sites at the National Gallery and in the immediate area have produced evidence of Middle-Saxon settlement. The main evidence is for activities such as quarrying and refuse disposal, possibly indicating an area on the periphery of the town. The full extent of Middle-Saxon Lundenwic is not yet clear, but the western boundary was probably in the area of Charing Cross Road and Trafalgar Square. To the north, traces of a semirural farmstead were discovered; all aspects of the archaeological evidence suggest activity away from the more intensely occupied areas around Covent Garden. In the medieval period, the site was to the north of the Royal Mews, first mentioned in the reign of Edward I. It lay within a walled enclosure, possibly around stables (Fig. 2). By 1746, the area
The Primacy of Taste: Apostle Spoons and Domestic Ritual in Tudor England
Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference, 2009
Concurrent with the rise of the Tudor Dynasty in England was the development of a set of dining utensils unique to this period in English history: Apostle spoons. Produced in sets of thirteen (to include the figure of Christ) these spoons were characterized by fig-shaped bowls attached to stems terminating in detailed figures of the Apostles identifiable by their attributes or emblems. Scholarship devoted to Apostle spoons has focused primarily on the dating of and identification of silversmiths' marks on extant sets. The only monograph on this decorative art form dedicates most of its discussion to iconographical examinations of the apostles' emblems. This paper moves beyond traditional studies of Apostle spoons to investigate how their form and decoration was intended to stimulate both the sense of taste and an understanding of the significance of taste as part of religious and social rituals of the later Renaissance in England.