Find Spot record MDO117 - Eighteenth-century pot base from Naller's Farm, Askerswell

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 152 (Serial). SDO83.

'A large quantity of pottery, found over several years at Naller's Farm, Askerswell (SY 543927) was kindly reported to the Dorset County Museum by Brian Rice, the farmer, with whom the finds remain. Most was post-medieval, but there was a little 13th/14th century pottery, and several Later Bronze Age or Earlier Iron Age sherds, dating from the earlier 1st millennium BC. All the pottery came from the area immediately around the farm buildings.

Among the post-medieval pottery was the base illustrated, with most unusual decoration: a man's face surrounded by leaves or petals (Figure 8). The decoration is scratched through white slip; the undecorated ?leaves are partly coated with slip inside. Parts of the beard and hair have worn away. The fabric is regular brick-red, with no obvious temper; the external surface is slightly darker with small splashes of orange glaze. Inside the slip has glazed rather yellowy, and the incised lines are orange. The vessel is perhaps a chafing dish, probably dating from the 18th century.

Jeremy Harte has kindly examined the drawing, and comments:

"The decoration has been influenced by the foliate head or "Green Man" , either as an artistic motif or through representation in folk drama. The former is more likely, since Kathleen Basford in her study of the subject 'The Green Man' (1978) has disallowed the conventional association of foliate heads with the Jack-in-the-Green or other May Day disguises. There are several late medieval Green men in Dorset, including stone roof bosses at Sherborne Abbey, wooden bosses at Burton Bradstock and a misericord at Wimborne.'

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1985, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1984, 123-124 (Serial). SDO84.

Record last edited

Jan 26 2016 3:58PM