Not making many pots has meant that we have more time on our hands to do other things - like cleaning the house. I have a dresser in our dining room which is full of pots that we have collected over the years.
Everytime I clean the dresser I have to remove all the pots, but this gives me time to reminisce about the pots - where I got them and from whom (note the correct use of grammar here!!!)
One of my earlier purchases was this one. We bought it about 35 years ago from John Hudson, more famous now for English slipware, when he used to exhibit at the Jorvik Viking Festival alongside Gerry and other traditional craftspeople. There were coopers, metal workers making swords and armour, hornmakers, woodworkers, stained glass makers, stone carvers- all manner of interesting people.
This is a replica of a medieval pot. In the 1980's John made a lot of replica pots for museums and archaeological centres. He worked with York Archaeological Trust building a medieval type kiln and making the tiles and finials for the roof of the reconstructed Barley Hall in York.
The original potter must have had a sense of humour. We wondered if the original pot was used as a "piss pot". Urine used to be collected and sold to tanneries and used to tan leather. They are quite often found in old latrines in monasteries.
Gerry was asked sometimes to make replica pots for museums and their shops.
The picture here shows one he made for Rievaulx Abbey. The original pot was indeed found in the latrines during excavation - it's not as amusing as John's.
No comments:
Post a Comment