bowl

Production date
Circa 1854-1863
 Description
4 base sherds
1 rim sherd
10 body sherds.

Object detail

Department
Object/Archaeology
Name/title notes
The tumblers are non-bespoke pottery tentatively identified as having been made by the Bo'ness Pottery for the Royal Edinburgh Asylum in the mid 19th century. The paupers had two items of crockery--a tumbler for drinking out of, and a large, deep bowl for eating out of, probably using a spoon. The tumbler and bowl were both white and decorated with a pair of black horizontal stripes, and the text 'REA 3rd MG'. One of the bowl bases recovered bore the impressed mark 'BEST GOODS', and this mark was apparently used by John Marshall of Bo'ness Pottery, Bo'ness [Kowalsky and Kowalsky 1999, 556]. The only other British pottery recorded as having 'best goods' is the firm of Evans and Glasson of Swansea, Wales, who incorporated the phrase into their transfer-printed marks [op cit, 191, 556]. John Marshall operated at Bo'ness from c 1854-1899.
At the same time as the REA 3rd MG crockery was in use, the fee-paying patients were using pottery mainly manufactured by J & MP Bell of the Glasgow Pottery, Glasgow. Bells operated from 1842 until 1881 as J & MPB & Co [Kelly, 1999, 105] and these initials are marked on some of the pottery recovered from the site. The Bells pottery in use at the REA included 'Willow' patterned dinnerware, and 'Broseley' and 'Egyptian Vase' patterned tea or breakfast ware.
Production date
Circa 1854-1863
Associated person
Field collection reference
REA-6
Accession number
2005-019-008

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