Today has been a getting-ready-to-pack day. We need to submit a complete inventory of all our belongings, along with the replacement value, to the moving company. This is SO not fun. However, it is probably an excellent window into what we value. The total cost of the furniture we’re shipping is far less than the value of the musical instruments, and that is exceeded by the value of our books. (Current number of books inventoried: 1,442, including a sizable library for the children. I’m sure we’ve missed a few that we’ll find as we keep looking around. Chunks of our book collection were also left in storage in the US.)
But even more interesting, to me, was the inventory I took of my mudlarking things. I sorted, I repacked, and I chose which items I wanted to carry to the Museum of London for identification (answer: too many. Especially heavy ones.)
I won’t be taking the pottery types I feel fairly confident that I’ve identified correctly, like the hand-painted china in blue:
…and other colors. Actually, I might take these in, see whether she can give me some names of types represented:
Combed Staffordshire slip stays home (can you tell I LOVE picking these bits up?):
…but I’ll ask questions about these similar but not identical pieces:
No need to carry in the salt glazed Bellarmine potsherds, even if the little face (left, middle row) is cute:
…but I might learn a bit about these more modern (I think all 19th and 20th century) stoneware bottle fragments:
I can recognize the stripes on this mochaware and banded ware:
…but not all the swirls and spots on this assortment of fragments:
…and certainly not these. I just need a name for them, so that I can look them up and learn more:
I’m pretty confident that I’ve separated my creamware:
…from my white salt glazed sherds:
…and my pearlware (which is mostly shell edged):
I’m not confident that these are all black basalt stoneware:
…and I hadn’t realized what this piece was until yesterday (having never even heard of Chelsea sprig):
…but I figured out how to tell my Westerwald stoneware:
…from my debased scratched blue and white stoneware a while ago. Though the differences are subtle.
While I am overly fond of my roof and floor tile fragments (especially the two medieval painted ones, bottom left), I’ll leave them home – they’re heavy.
The transferware can stay home, too – I just don’t have time to delve into all its 18th and 19th-century variety:
…even for the extra fun colored bits. Not taking them:
…or the spongeware:
I’ll bring in my jar of delft, because I’m not terribly confident about sorting these fragments and suspect some other styles are mixed in:
The heaviest lot I’m bringing is these large chunky redware pieces (plus many more bags of smaller redware and the 14th-16th century green lead glazed bits). I just can’t resist the functional, hand-formed shapes, although clearly most people prefer to leave them on the shore:
These bits of redware are a bit more refined. Must learn more about them:
And if I’ve identified these correctly, this blackware could date from late Tudor or Stuart times:
Wow, I spend a lot of time learning about pottery, for someone who never cared much for it. Hobbies, how they change us. My real interest is more the costuming bits like aglets (left) and pins:
And more aglets (left), next to printer’s type:
Buttons and beads are always fun to find, though I don’t think any of these are exceptional:
Hooks and eyes are lots of fun to study (for a costuming geek, that is):
and some are very hard to distinguish from bits of wire and metal scrap:
My bag would be so much lighter if I didn’t haul large metal chunks like these home:
along with nails:
and glass:
The little things usually make me the happiest. Like round things…whatever their original purpose (toy, industrial tool, shot), they’re round things and I like them:
I found a lot of unidentified scraps of lead before I ever found a lead fabric seal (not pictured):
And there are still an amazing number of leather fragments preserved out there:
along with an assortment of other random items from throughout history, like wig curlers, bottle stoppers, belt buckle bits, knife handles, etc.:
Goodbye, Thames, you mysterious history-hoarding old river. I’m going to miss you.
