Fig. 66.—Pitcher from Lough Faughan. About one-seventh the real size.
From the crannog of Lough Faughan, Co. Down, was procured the pitcher No. 9, Museum of the Royal Irish Academy; also another pitcher, 13 inches in height, and 32 in girth, of a description of pottery so light as only to weigh 5 lbs. 10 oz. It figures as No. 10 in the collection of food implements. Externally it is dark in colour, and being partially glazed, is, therefore, not of very ancient date: it is so rounded at the bottom that it cannot stand upright: about the neck, and for some distance down the sides, it is tastefully decorated, and the handle is peculiar in form.[116]
Fig. 67.—Fictile Vessel from Ballydoolough, restored.
The accompanying engraving ([fig. 67]), a good specimen of another class of fictile ware, represents, in a restored form, one of the finest of the crocks found at Ballydoolough. In colour it is light-yellowish red; it measures three feet two inches round the mouth, and is tastefully ornamented on the rim and sides. This decoration had been evidently impressed upon the soft clay before the vessel was burnt, and the pattern conveys the idea of such antiquity that, if found in a tumulus, it would be referred to a prehistoric age.