Three Styles of Decoration on Anglo-Saxon Pottery

J. N. L. Myres

doi:10.1017/S0003581500074928

Three Styles of Decoration on Anglo-Saxon Pottery

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012

J. N. L. Myres

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The types of decoration used on Anglo-Saxon pottery of the pagan period in England have never yet received the detailed analysis which their variety and historical importance deserve. The time has not yet come when a comprehensive study can be attempted, for the great bulk of the pottery concerned either remains unpublished or has been published so inadequately that the student is compelled to go back to the originals before coming to any conclusions. But it does already seem possible to isolate certain of the commoner elements of the decorative schemes employed and to investigate their history and affinities. In the following pages the attempt is prompted by the exhibition and publication of two urns from Lincolnshire and one from London, all of which are in private ownership. These three vessels happen to illustrate three characteristic styles of decoration which seem to be fundamental in this line of study, and the following remarks are offered without any undue dogmatism, in the hope that they may at least make a start in the elucidation of what is undoubtedly the most neglected of all pre-medieval groups of English ceramic material.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 1937 , pp. 424 - 437

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500074928 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1937

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^{page 426 note 1} I am indebted to Mr. F. T. Baker, Curator of the Lincoln Museum, for information on the history of this vessel.

^{page 426 note 2} Roman Britain and the English Settlements (1936), pp. 414–16Google Scholar.

^{page 427 note 1} See, e.g.,Plettke, A., Ursprung und Ausbreitung der Angeln und Sachsen (1920), pls. 32 and 36Google Scholar.

^{page 427 note 2} Also illustrated by Brown, G. Baldwin, Arts in Early England, iv (1915), pls. cxxxvi, 7,Google Scholar cxxxvii, 2; and in Hull Museum Publications, 66 and 67, pp. 68–9, and pl. xv, fig. 32.

^{page 428 note 1} Unpublished: in the collection of Rev. J. W. Corbould-Warren by whose permission it is here illustrated.

^{page 428 note 2} Plettke, , op. cit., pl. 35, 8Google Scholar.

^{page 429 note 1} Also illustrated in Grantham Public Library and Museum Sixth Annual Report (1928), no. 74Google Scholar.

^{page 430 note 1} e.g., from Hoogebeintum and Beetgum (Leeuwarden Museum): also from Wageningen (Leiden Museum).

^{page 430 note 2} e.g., from Blumental (Bremen Museum): Wehden bei Lehe and Hassel (Hanover Museum).

^{page 430 note 3} Corbould-Warren collection.

^{page 430 note 4} In the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

^{page 430 note 5} In the Yorkshire Museum, York.

^{page 430 note 6} In the British Museum.

^{page 430 note 7} In the Grantham Museum.

^{page 430 note 8} In Mr. Crowther-Beynon's collection.

^{page 430 note 9} In a private collection.

^{page 431 note 1} In the Cambridge Museum.

^{page 431 note 2} Lethbridge, T. C., Recent Excavations in Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries in Cambs. and Suffolk (1931), pl. 1, 60Google Scholar.

^{page 431 note 3} In the British Museum.

^{page 431 note 4} Also illustrated in Grantham Public Library and Museum Sixth Annual Report (1928), no. 78Google Scholar.

^{page 432 note 1} See, e.g., Plettke, , op. cit., p. 42Google Scholar ff., and pls. 28–32.

^{page 432 note 2} Sancton (E. Yorks) and Caistor-by-Norwich are the best instances.

^{page 432 note 3} Lethbridge, T. C., op. cit., pl. 1, 69Google Scholar and p. 34.

^{page 432 note 4} Corbould-Warren collection: I am indebted to Commander F. R. Mann for information on this point.

^{page 433 note 1} Wheeler, R. E. M., London and the Saxons (1935), p. 139Google Scholar.

^{page 433 note 2} In Norwegian finds of this period such fluting occurs occasionally on pots which are clear imitations of Roman glass ware, and on other vessels showing obvious southern influences: see Bøe, J., Jernalderens Keramikk i Norge (1931), figs. 179,Google Scholar 217, 222. Vandal pottery imitating Roman glass ware of the second and third centuries occurs in Lower Silesia: see Brogan, O. in Journal of Roman Studies, xxvi (1936), p. 215,Google Scholar and fig. 16. There is a vessel from Borgstedt (Kiel Museum) which shows the fluted technique.

^{page 434 note 1} Pottery now in the Musées du Cinquantenaire, Brussels.

^{page 434 note 2} The rarity of the later varieties of this series in England is a curious fact for which I have no explanation. They do, however, occur: witness the striking set from Market Overton (Rutland) now in the School Museum at Oakham.

^{page 435 note 1} Cambridge and British Museums.

^{page 435 note 2} Archaeologia, xxxviii (1859), graves 24Google Scholar and 27: now in the Ashmolean Museum.

^{page 435 note 3} Leeds, E. T. and Harden, D. B., An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Abingdon, Berks (1936), pl. 1, 8Google Scholar.

^{page 435 note 4} Ashmolean Museum.

^{page 435 note 5} Reading Museum.

^{page 435 note 6} In private hands.

^{page 436 note 1} History, x (1925), 97Google Scholar; Antiq. Journ. xiii (1933), 229Google Scholar.

^{page 436 note 2} Illustrated by Mr. Leeds, in Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology (1936), pl. XIIIaGoogle Scholar.

^{page 436 note 3} All in the Guildford Museum.

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