Of the potters’ kiln, &c., found near Colchester, where probably some ware in imitation of the fine red Samian was produced, a notice will be found in “Collectanea Antiqua.”[19] In the Yorkshire potteries—for there can be little doubt that at Potters Newton, at York, and at other places pot-works existed in these early times—the curious vessels ornamented with what are usually called “frill patterns” were made, as also other slip and scaled patterns, as on Figs. 158, 159, and 160.

At Headington, Oxfordshire, I had the good fortune myself to discover in 1849, along with the remains of a villa and other buildings, traces of a kiln and of many other interesting features, of which I published an account in the Journal of the British Archæological Association.[20] The fragments of pottery found on this site were extremely varied, and attended with some very unusual facts. One of the most curious and interesting matters was the discovery of a clay mould bearing a beautifully formed female head (a bacchante), with a wreath of vine leaves encircling her brow, for the forming of heads on Romano-British pottery. Fig. 166 shows this mould, and Fig. 167 gives the impression taken from it.[21] The face has a remarkably pleasing expression, and is beautifully formed. The mould is a rough lump of red clay, and has been broken on its sides.

The pottery, with but one or two exceptions, was in fragments; from these the engravings here given have been carefully restored. One very remarkable feature was the immense assemblage—a cartload at least—of fragments of mortaria. In form and material they differed considerably from those found in other localities. Some were of a fine buff-coloured clay, others of a lead colour, as produced by the smother kiln, and all well studded with broken quartz. In size they varied from seven and a half inches to nearly two feet in diameter. The larger one on Fig. 168 was one foot nine inches in diameter, while the smaller one is only seven and a half inches. The sections of the rims of the Headington mortaria are dissimilar to others, as I have carefully pointed out in the communication referred to. Fig. 171 exhibits a vessel of fine red ware, the rim of which is painted black, on which the white scroll-pattern is laid. The sections of rims which accompany it for comparison sake are, besides its own rim,—1, red with white pattern; 2, a fine red ware; 3, a fine ware, with a metallic surface; and 4 and 5, imported Samian. Fig. 175 is of chocolate colour, and is ornamented with an indented pattern of lines of squares, alternating with flat circles. Fig. 172 is of blue-gray colour, of fine and close and very hard texture; the sides are indented. Fig. 173 is of light buff colour. The curious assemblage of vessels grouped on Fig. 176 are formed of a fine black clay mixed with sand. They are beautifully formed, and many of them are ornamented with surface lines traced on the clay without incision or indentation. The two examples (Figs. 181 and 182) are of tolerably fine red ware; the taller one (which has had a handle) has been surface-coated with a red pigment. Fig. 178 is of coarse red ware, and, as will be seen, is much the same in form as our modern soup-plates. Fragments of vessels of the form of Fig. 180 were very numerous. They were of coarse buff-coloured ware. Other examples found during the excavations which I carried on are shown grouped on Fig. 183. Fig. 179, like the rest, restored from fragments, is a small and delicately formed cup, three and a quarter inches in diameter, of rough-cast ware[22]; of these, examples were found, some of red, and others of a chocolate colour.

Some good fragments of Castor ware were discovered, from which the group (Figs. 97 to 99) has been restored. Fig. 174 is a small cup of buff-coloured ware. Some small fragments of a green glazed ware were also found.

Among the most curious of the discoveries were fragments of vessels of fine clay, of a buff colour, with the patterns painted in red on their surface. One of these bears the rude representation of a cock; others have waved and scrolled patterns; and others again, lines, dots, circles, &c. Many other varieties of wares were also found, as were some few fragments of Samian.

An interesting discovery of the remains of what appears to have been a potter’s workshop was made in Dorsetshire, in 1841, by Mr. Warne, of which he gives some very interesting particulars.[23] The foundations were rectangular and clearly defined—in length forty-four feet, in breadth twenty-five feet—constructed of flints, which are plentiful in the neighbourhood. “In clearing out there was found a great quantity of fragments of the ordinary smooth black and firm-grained ware: the bottoms of some vessels were perforated like colanders. In the course of the excavations, remains of instruments used by the potter were also found; the most interesting being a considerable portion of a wheel, formed of that peculiar bituminous shale well known as ‘Kimmeridge coal.’ It is part of a circle, originally a wheel or plate, fifteen inches in diameter and one inch and a quarter thick. It has undergone the process of a careful and well-finished turning in the lathe. It may at once be seen that it formed part of a potter’s wheel, the rotatory table on which the workmen moulded, or rather when brought to the desired form, the ductile clay received the finishing touches. There are to be seen two or three counter-sinkings, in which were fixed the arms of the metal axis on which it revolved. Portions of other wheels in limestone were found, and one of great thickness, in conglomerate, the use of which would seem to have been for pulverising the crude material. Numerous pieces were scattered about of small and very thin stone, of a rude but markedly angular form, similar to such as are still, or lately were, used in the manufacture of coarse earthenware. Amidst the débris was a knife fixed in a rude bone haft; with the remains were a large brass coin of Marcus Aurelius, and three denarii of Severus Alexander, Gordianus III., and Philippus.”

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.

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.

Among the most special objects found at Wilderspool are two tetinæ, a tragic mask, and a triplet vase. Of the mask, engraved on Fig. 186, Dr. Kendrick says:—“Although it is sadly mutilated, an earthenware mask or visor for the human face is certainly the most rare and curious of the Roman antiquities discovered at Wilderspool. As such it has been described and figured in the seventeenth volume of the Journal of the Archæological Association. In the British Museum is a single specimen of the comic mask, such as we often see represented on Greek and Roman sculptures or intaglio seals; there is also another mask, with the mouth closed, for the silent actor. The Wilderspool mask appears to be an equally solitary example of the tragic mask, although Pollux, an ancient writer, enumerates twenty-five typical or standing masks of tragedy—six for old men, seven for young men, nine for females, and three for slaves.”

The tetinæ, or feeding-bottles, are engraved on Figs. 187 and 188; they have tubular spouts at the side, and, when used, they were no doubt furnished with soft nipples or teats for the tender mouth of the infant. When found the mouth of each was covered by a fragment of pottery, and, from their upright position and contents, there can be no doubt that they contained the ashes of one or more children. It is also curious to remark that one handle was suited for the right hand of the nurse, and the other for the left, as if to compel a change of posture for the infant.

The triple, or triune vase, restored on Fig. 189, is an excellent specimen, the connecting bands being hollow tubes, so that when the liquor was placed in one, it rose to the same height in each. Many other objects of great interest were found at Wilderspool, and have been carefully described by Dr. Kendrick and illustrated by his daughter.

At Ashdon, in Essex, a potter’s kiln was discovered by the Hon. R. C. Neville in 1852. It was of square form, being, as nearly as could be measured, eighteen feet square, inclusive of the outer walls. The furnace appeared to have been at the south-west end, immediately communicating with the central and largest flue; in it was a considerable quantity of charcoal and black ashes. This flue was two feet six inches across at the entrance and two feet in width along the entire length, which divided the structure into two equal portions. From it eight lateral flues (each seven inches wide) diverged opposite each other on either side. It was closed by the north-eastern wall, which was carefully constructed of Roman tiles, which, as well as the flanged tiles in other parts, had evidently been used in some former building. Many fragments of tiles and pottery were strewed about, but no perfect vessel was found.

A kiln was discovered in 1868 at Winterton, near Brigg, on a site about half a mile from the Roman road, and not far from where a tesselated pavement had been previously discovered. By the falling of a portion of the side of a pit where sand was being dug, there was exposed a rudely constructed kiln or oven, made by sinking a circular cavity about six feet deep and six feet in diameter at the top, becoming narrower towards the bottom, so as to be in fact an inverted cone. The lower half of it is in the sand, and the upper half in the surface soil, and in a thin bed of clay between this and the sand. A little more than a foot in depth of the bottom of the pit had been filled with soil from the surface, quite compact, as if it had been mixed with water and well rammed down. On the top of this rested the oven itself, formed by lining the pit with a mixture of coarse mud or clay with small stones and pebbles, to a thickness of about four inches at the bottom, increasing upward to ten inches at the brim, which is about one foot and a half below the present surface of the field. From the centre of the floor thus made rises a pillar of one foot nine inches in height, and widening from one foot diameter at the bottom to one foot ten inches at the top, which pillar widens suddenly so as to form a sort of mushroom head, continuous in structure with the clay or mud floor and walls just described. Two shallow grooves run all round the inside of the oven, a little above the top of the pillar, and broken pieces of blue Roman pottery are laid across from the pillar to the side of the basin so as to cover in a sort of circular flue. Over these has been spread a thin coat of clay similar to the rest of the lining, so that the upper storey, so to speak, is a shallow pit, about three and a half feet diameter and one foot and a half deep. A large quantity of black ashes, and of fragments of Roman pottery, was found in and around the kiln. An account of this discovery, with an engraving of the kiln appeared in vol. ix. of “The Reliquary.” Another, in the same county, was discovered near Ancaster; and in Somersetshire a kiln has been uncovered.

Many potteries besides those whose productions have been here spoken of might be described; but as their productions were the usual classes of domestic or sepulchral vessels, or flue and other tiles, it is not perhaps necessary to enumerate them. I will therefore proceed to speak of some of the vessels not already particularised in this chapter.

Amphoræ were undoubtedly made in the Roman pot-works of Britain; evidences of their manufacture having been observed in various localities. The most extensive of these indications was at Colchester, from which place the example (Fig. 194) is taken. These vessels are of large dimensions, strongly formed, and usually of a buff, or reddish-yellow colour. The forms of these vessels are of two distinct kinds—the one being tall and slender, as in Fig. 194, and the other more globular, as in Figs. 196 and 197. They were mostly pointed at the bottom, for the purpose of fixing them, it is believed, in the earth, or in stands made for their reception.

Mortaria, of which three examples have been given (Figs. 168 to 170), formed another extensive class of domestic vessels. Their use appears to have been the pounding and beating up, for culinary purposes, of vegetables and other articles. Some of the examples which have been found bear unmistakable signs of long and hard use. Their inner surface was studded, while the clay was soft, either with small fragments of quartz or with scoriæ of iron, so as to promote trituration. The example (Fig. 198) is of somewhat different character, having more upright, and somewhat higher, sides than usual. It has been much used.

Another of the more usual of the domestic vessels, of Romano-British manufacture, is the very convenient kind of basin (Fig. 199), which will be seen to be of the same general shape as Fig. 171. The form of this basin is infinitely better, more elegant, and more convenient than those in use among us at the present day. The central flanged rim is a very secure and handy arrangement for holding. This example, and the mortarium (Fig. 198) were found together—in fact, inverted one into the other—in the churchyard at Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. Many other varieties of domestic vessels were also extensively made, but to these it is not necessary farther to refer.

The sepulchral urns of Romano-British manufacture are of extremely varied form and ornamentation. Figs. 78, 135, 137, 140, 161 to 165, and 183, will serve as examples of some of the varieties. The most usual forms, however, are perhaps Figs. 200 to 205. They are of various kinds of clays, and were generally plain, or but slightly ornamented.

Other good examples of sepulchral urns of various kinds, and of different shapes, will be seen on the three groups of pottery, &c., found at Cirencester, shown on Figs. 203, 204, and 205.[25] On the same engravings will be seen many other characteristic examples of Roman Ceramic Art, as well as some metallic remains.

Building-tiles, flue-tiles, roof-tiles, and drain-tiles were a branch of manufacture which was carried on to a considerable extent in various parts of the country, and, no doubt, generally in the immediate neighbourhood of the buildings where they were used. The building-tiles which are to be seen in the remains of the period, as in the Jewry Wall at Leicester, engraved on Fig. 206, where occasionally they form “herring-bone” masonry, are usually from about seven to ten inches square, and about an inch and a half in thickness. They are frequently marked with letters, and with feet of animals which have passed over them (Figs. 207 and 209). The flue-tiles are of various dimensions. They are usually of an oblong square form, hollow throughout, with a lateral opening in one side for the heated air to pass through (see Fig. 214). Others have two channels through their entire length, and are without side openings. They are much ornamented with incised patterns, and occasionally are stamped with letters. Some, too, have figures of dogs, stags, &c. They were used for various purposes. Another example is shown lying down in the centre of the group of tiles on Fig. 210. In this group, the tall example, represented standing upright, will be sufficient to show the form and excellence of construction of the drain-tiles—the small end of each being made to fit with an elbow joint into the thick end of the next. In the same group are some open-flanged drain-tiles. An inscribed flange-tile is shown on Fig. 217.

The roofing-tiles were much more calculated to resist the wind and rain than those of later invention. They had flanged sides, which fitted close to each other and were covered at the joint by a small semicircular tile, like a draining or ridge-tile, imbedded in mortar and resting on the two roofing-tiles, as a draining-tile rests on its sole. This arrangement is shown on Fig. 211, which represents some roofing-tiles found at Walesby. Of the ridge-tiles, of semicircular form, to cover the joints, two good examples (Figs. 212 and 215), from Headington, are here given.

It may be added that, on tiles of one kind or other, the name of the legions and cohorts quartered in particular localities where they were made, are frequently found impressed. The soldiers were brick-makers and masons, and made the tiles and built the houses, &c., at the places where they were stationed. Tile-stamps thus become important aids to history.

It is curious to add that some of the tiles which have been found tell a silent tale, which they were never intended to carry, of the dress or hand or foot of the maker, which have become accidentally impressed upon their surface while in a soft state, and are afterwards rendered imperishable by firing in the kiln. One example of this kind of accidental ornamentation (Fig. 207), which exhibits the impress of a man’s feet, or, rather, shoes thickly studded with nails,—like the “hob-nailed” boots of our own day,—will suffice as an illustration.

One extraordinary and highly interesting use of tiles among the Roman inhabitants of Britain was that of forming them into tombs.[26] A large tile was laid flat on the ground; two others of the same length were placed upright, one at each side, to form the sides; two shorter ones were placed upright as ends; and another tile formed the cover (Fig. 216). Thus a fictile cist, or chest, was formed, and in this was deposited the sepulchral urn containing the ashes of the departed, with its accompanying group of smaller vessels. Cists of this kind are found frequently in the Roman cemeteries at Colchester. “The practice of enclosing or covering the sepulchral deposits with tiles appears to have been so general, that the word tegula, a tile, was often used to signify a tomb. The reader will at once call to mind the lines of Ovid:—

It appears from these lines that it was the custom for the relatives to place garlands, fruit, and salt on the tile which covered the sepulchral deposit.[27]

At York, graves, or rather tombs, formed of a number of roof-tiles, have been found. Fig. 218 represents one of these curious tombs. It was formed of ten roof-tiles, four of which were placed on either side, and one at each end, and four ridge tiles arranged along the top. Each tile bore the impressed stamp of the VI. Legion (Leg. VI., Legio sexta victrix—the sixth legion victorious). In these tile-tombs urns had in one instance been placed; in another (the one engraved) were the remains of the funeral fire, with the ashes of the dead. Clay coffins have also occasionally been found. One of these, from Aldborough, is shown on Fig. 219.

Lamps were undoubtedly made in various parts of this kingdom, and were more or less ornamented; some bear excellently executed figures and other devices. Many appear to have been made at Colchester, and are spoken of by Mr. Roach Smith in his “Collectanea Antiqua.” The pot works at this place appear to have been on the Lexden Road, where a kiln and many other remains have been brought to light.

Penates and other figures, or statuettes, were also made in this country; and these, again, it is pretty certain, were made in considerable numbers at Colchester, as were also lachrymatories, unguentaria, &c.

Coin moulds, for the manufacture of spurious Roman coins, were also made of clay, and the arrangement was very simple, but effective. The clay being properly tempered and prepared, was formed into small round tablets of uniform size and thickness. A coin was then pressed between two tablets while the clay was soft, so as to leave a perfect impression, and these impressions, which had thus become obverse and reverse moulds, were arranged together in little piles; the upper and lower being impressed on one side only. Down the sides of each of these little piles or heaps a nick or notch was then cut, so as to admit the molten metal. Two or three of these heaps were then, as shown in the engraving (Fig. 221), placed side by side with the notches joined together, and these were then surrounded by a clay cone with a hole at the top, into which the metal was poured, and ran down through the notches, and so into the moulds. Impressions were thus taken the exact counterpart of the original coin from which the moulds had been taken.