Figs. 271 and 272.—From Burley Hill.
Figs. 273 to 275.—From Burley Hill.
Figs. [271 and 272] represent the two sides of a remarkably fine pitcher, which (as well as those engraved on Figs. [267 to 279]) was discovered by myself in a kiln to which reference has been made. It is sixteen inches in height, and is, perhaps, the finest and most interesting fictile remain of the Norman period in existence. It bears, as will be seen, five horseshoes, and two buckles, all of which were badges of the Ferrars family (Norman Earls of Derby), who were lords of the soil where, and at the time when, these vessels were made. The decorations are all laid on in “slip” of a finer kind of clay than that of which the body is composed, and the pitcher is glazed. Herring-bone pattern is incised in the body of the pitcher itself.
While speaking of this pitcher it may not be out of place to allude to a ludicrous mistake made in Miss Meteyard’s “Life of Wedgwood.” On page 38, vol. i. of that work, Miss Meteyard has copied my own woodcut which appeared some little time before, both in the “Reliquary” and in my own “Life of Wedgwood;” but her artist having made his tracing from my woodcut has reversed it in his copy, and thus made it worse than useless.
Fig. 276.
Fig. 277.