Haggarty, George (2013) Ceramic Resource Disc: Later Pottery & Porcelain from Ronaldson Wharf Leith. National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh.

Transcription

1 Haggarty, George (2013) Ceramic Resource Disc: Later Pottery & Porcelain from Ronaldson Wharf Leith. National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. Introduction, Acknowledgments & Bibliography File 1-6 BOX 1 File 7-8 BOX 2 File 9-13 BOX 3 File BOX 4 File BOX 5 Illustrations A-D Deposited on: 12 May 2014

2 NMS Repository Research publications by staff of the National Museums Scotland

3 1 The later ceramic material from Ronaldson s Wharf Leith George R. Haggarty* Research Associate: national Museums Scotland Ronaldson s Wharf Leith Area F under excavation: image courtesy of John Lawson The Leith Ronaldson s Wharf excavations carried out by the City of Edinburgh Archaeological Service at in 1997, see [illus a & b]. This large urban excavation covered two large areas either side of the medieval main street Sandport Street laid out formally in the 12 th century overlying and incorporating the pre burgh fishing settlement and port. The excavations uncovered extensive remains dating from the early foundation of the settlement (thought to be in the 10/11 th centuries) up to the 20 th century.

4 2 The excavations uncovered one of Edinburgh s largest assemblages of medieval and later ceramic material. The vast majority of Industrial Produced ceramics have been divided into two principal groups, (1) and (2). (1) This consisted in the main of blue and white transfer-printed wares both Scottish and English, [word files 12-16], with lesser amounts of Scottish cut sponge decorated wares, [word files 8-10], hand painted wares [word file11] and banded wares [word file 6]. All the pottery except the buff banded wares are in standard white earthenware and seem to date in the main from the second and third quarters of the 19 th century. The vast majority of this material derives from Area G, see [illus d], context [3002] the fill of a sewer trench and [3003] the backfill of a lightwell for a late-18 th /19 th century Tenement sealed by a wooden floor. Much of the ceramic material conjoins suggesting that it derived from a common source probably context [3003] with the material within the sewer fill being redeposited. (2) This assemblage principally derives from Area F located on the western side of Sandport Street an area principally of domestic occupation. The material consists in the main of 18 th century wares with some earlier tin-glazed earthenware shards. It comprised white salt-glazed stoneware [word file 2], scratch blue [word file 3], creamware [word file 4], tin-glazed earthenware [word file 7], Chinese export porcelain [word file 1] and pearlware [word file 17]. In the main the British material derives from contexts [1139, 1160, 1162 and 1220], see [illus c], while the shards of Chinese porcelain derived mostly from the same contexts with a few outsiders, such as context [1035]. The dating of the British ceramic material suggests that the Chinese porcelain dates mainly from the earlier to middle Qianlong reign [ ], but to the author a number of the shards look a bit earlier. The vast majority of the tin-glazed earthenware, which is almost certainly Dutch, was also recovered from Contexts [1139, 1162 and 1164] and like the Chinese porcelain some shards seem to be earlier, dating from the first quarter of the 18 th century. Context [1139] a basement infill, while [1160] is a fill to the north of [1157] which underlies [1139]. Context [1162] was a mixed deposit between walls [1119] and

5 3 [1157] and it was made up of dumps of levelling material cut by [1161] same as [1152] and [1139]. Context [1220] was the fill of depression overlying [1529]. A number of small tin glazed shards were recovered from other contexts, and these will have to wait for the final publication to be dealt with properly. However a number of important pieces deserve mention here; a foot-rim shard from an Italian Savona moulded and painted dish, context [1626] [word file 7 no 7-50], which must date to c. 1700, while the only shard of Portuguese, Lisbon tin-glaze, identified todate from a Scottish site, context [1305] [word file 7 no 7-20], is likely to be of somewhat similar date. There is also a large fragment from an Anglo-Dutch polychrome charger decorated with stylized plant in pale blue, pale plate tin-glazed earthenware plate from context [1147], and this is likely to date from the first half of the 17 th century, while other shards from context [ ] are also thought to be 17 th century, but somewhat later in date. Other tin-glazed shards from context [1314] are likely to date from c , while those from context [1152] probably date to c Given the number of conjoining shards between most of these contexts it must reflect a period of levelling activity during the 18 th century which may have disturbed an earlier dump. Acknowledgments While cataloguing the Ronaldson s Wharf ceramic assemblage, the work of the National Museums Scotland volunteers, Jim Gray, Sheila Forbes along with, David and Catriona Maisel, all working in the NMS ceramic store, was crucial in getting the shards washed, sorted and, where possible, joined. As usual, Sheila also carried out, with amazing speed and good humour, the tasks of shard marking and packing. For practical support we are as always indebted to a number of people in the Museum including George Dalgleish Lindsey McGill and Jackie Moran. I also wish to thank Stefan Sagrott for the illustrations and Jim Gray for help in cataloguing the tin-glazed earthenware. Finally John A Lawson of City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service (CECAS) allowed me to work on the shard material and arranging payment for the CD ROMs and drawings and for this I am extremely grateful.

6 4 *George Raymond Haggarty asserts and gives notice of his right under section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of the enclosed Newbigging Resource Disk. Bibliography Dinh Chién, Nguyén 2003 Tàu Cô Cà Mau, The Ca Mau Shipwreck, Fleming, J A 1923 Scottish Pottery Godden, G 1964 Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks under the Index Signs & Devices [No.2617; p 759] and in the main section No. 2617; p.428 Haggarty, G 2007 The evidence for 18 th century Creamware and Pearlware production in the Forth littoral in Creamware and Pearlware Re-Examined A collection of papers presented at a Colloquium held by the English Ceramic Circle at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kensington 4 th and 5 th June 2005, Haggarty, G 2008 Portobello Potteries A Ceramic Resource Disk in The Northern Ceramic Society Journal 24 [2007-8]. Haggarty, G 2012 Bo ness Pottery Ceramic Resource Disk: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh Jones R and Leishman, D A 2012 Scottish Pottery Marks. The Scottish Pottery Society Kelly, H E 1999 Scottish Ceramics. Atglen USA. Matusz, J 1977 Delfts aardwerk, Amerongen Priestman, G H 2001 An Illustrated Guide to Minton Printed Pottery , Sheffield, Endcliff Press. Hanoi Riley, N 1991 Gifts For Good Children-The History of Children s China Somerset. Sheaf, C & Kilburn, R 1988 The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes. Oxford. Van Dam, J D 2004 Delffse Porceleyne, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.