Tin-glazed earthenware dish

This dish was excavated from a pit in Paul Street, Exeter. It matches very closely a number of dishes excavated in the kiln sites at Montelupo a small town near Florence, and was almost certainly made there. It is decorated with foliage in cobalt blue in the alla porcellana style.
The Exeter: a Place in Time (EAPIT) project has recently carried out research on this dish. Italian tin-glazed pottery found at several sites in Exeter were analysed for the concentrations of their chemical elements by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP) to try to determine their place of production. Such provenance studies require the comparison of analyses from the ‘test’ items against databases of analyses of material from the presumed sources, such as wasters or biscuit wares from known and dated kiln sites. The research confirmed that this dish was made in Montelupo.

Object Summary

Accession Loan No.
120/2000/10
Category
Antiquities
Collection Class
Exeter archaeology
Collection Area Region
Northern Europe
Collector Excavator
Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit
Material
potteryMontelupo tin-glazed earthenware
Common Name
tin-glazed earthenware dish
Simple Name
dish
Period Classification
Tudor (1500-1603)
Production Year Low
1500
Production Year High
1520

View Full Details

maiolica dish