Almost invariably broken glass is found on our Roman sites, but never
in the profusion of the potsherds. We need not infer from this that
glass was scarce or costly. To-day, a domestic rubbish-heap discloses
more broken earthenware and porcelain than glass, and this in both
cases is due to the latter material being, from its brittleness and
inability to withstand sudden changes of temperature, of more limited
use than the former. The general diffusion of Roman glass warrants a
belief that it was both well known and in regular use in the homes of
the era, but perfect vessels are rarely found on their sites. The
majority of these in our museums have been obtained from graves, where
many of them were used as cineraries and others as accessories, their
careful burial having conduced to their preservation.
The combined action of the moisture and carbonic acid of the soil has
often rendered the surface of the glass more or less opaque. If the
action has been slight, a beautiful iridescent lustre may result,
beloved of connoisseurs, but masking the original brilliancy of the
surface; if severe, the surface may be in a scaling condition. In most
large collections, some of the glass is in an unchanged condition, and
well indicates the high attainments of the glass-makers of the era,
both in their material and their technical processes.
How high these attainments reached, is well seen in the 'onyx' glass,
of which the Portland vase in the British Museum is a familiar example,
with cameo-like figures which are unrivalled
in glass-carving; in the 'millefiori' or
fused-mosaic glass, sometimes resembling a richly coloured coralline
marble, and sometimes a brecciated marble; and in the 'diatretum,'
distinguished for its deeply undercut ornamentation. But glass-wares of
the costliness and high finish of this need not detain us further, for
although not uncommon in Italy, the finding of fragments in this
country is of excessively rare occurrence. They indicate that the
glass-workers had command of a wide range of colours, but they seem not
to have attained to a pure transparent red. They certainly used copper,
iron, manganese and antimony in their production, and probably also
cobalt for some of the rich deep blues.
FIG. 53. ROMAN GLASSWARE, MAIDSTONE MUSEUM
The vessels ordinarily
met with here are of a useful kind, consisting of bottles of a variety
of forms and sizes, ewers, jars, cups, beakers, and saucers, mostly
with a bluish-green tinge and highly transparent. In the finer
qualities the tinge is slighter, but absolutely colourless glass is
rare. If the tinge is not green, it is a faint saffron or honey-colour,
but nearly always with a suspicion of green. Vessels, however, in what
may be properly called coloured glass, are by no means uncommon, deep
blue and green, and various yellow tones ranging from amber to a rich
brown, being the most frequent.
Fig. 52. Examples of Roman Glass Vessels (1/4)
In the forms and decorations of the vessels, the Roman glass-worker
went his own way, and his products rarely simulated those of the potter
and the metal-worker. As might be expected, he turned out wares of
various grades strong, plain, and cheap for common and rough
purposes, and highly refined, which had a delicacy of form and finish
that can hardly be excelled. Most of the glass vessels of Roman Britain
were simply blown, and they indicate a high proficiency in the use of
the blow-iron. The little cup with its widespread and turned-down rim
(Fig. 52, B), from Caerwent, is a simple and not unpleasing example. It is thin and wellshaped,
and its foot is a ring of glass deftly attached to the base. The
cylindrical handled bottle (A), from Boughton Monchelsea, Kent, is a
small specimen of a common form, fragments of which are found on most
Roman sites. These vessels are of common greenish glass, and are mostly
from about 8 ins. to 1 ft. in height. They invariably have wide handles, strong and
sturdy, reeded externally, and attached to the
shoulder by a spreading base. This reeding is characteristic of the
handles of the time, and the claw-like feet of the reeds, well seen
also in our examples, C, D, E, F, give a sense of firmness of grip. The
last three, from burials at Sittingbourne, Colchester, and Faversham
respectively, are decanter-like bottles. The spiral string of glass
round the neck of the first gives it an admirable finish. Vessels of
the shape of the second have been more frequently found than the other
two, but without the smaller handle. The trail of glass, frilled by the
dexterous use of the pincers, below these handles, is not uncommon. The
third is remarkable for the vertical pillars round the body.
In C we have a moulded square variant of A of equally common
occurrence, with a precisely similar handle. Similar hexagonal, and
more rarely octagonal, bottles are also met with, occasionally with two
handles. The bodies of these bottles were moulded, and their bottoms
often have simple devices, as panels, interlaced letters, concentric
circles, etc., in raised lines, and sometimes letters, probably
initials of the makers' names.1
A small jug from Colchester, in the British Museum, was shaped by
being blown into a mould or cage of wire network, the impression of
which shows on the glass.
H is a beaker-like cup of the finest workmanship, and ornamented with
grooved bands, from one of the Bartlow Hills tombs. Fragments of
similar cups, but not necessarily of quite the same shape, have been
found on many of our Roman sites. A piece of one was turned up at
Gellygaer with the edge of the spreading lip ground and polished, and
the narrow horizontal groovings cut on the lathe.
The godrooned or 'pillared' bowl, I, was not uncommon. These bowls
were often in coloured glass deep blue, full green, amber, or
mulberry; but fragments have been found in London and Silchester of
several colours mingled together after the fashion of the coloured
clays of the old Staffordshire 'agate' ware. They were evidently
moulded. The writer examined some pieces of these bowls in the Caerleon
Museum, and found that the inner surface and the outer above the
pillars had been ground and polished, apparently on the lathe, from which, it
would seem, that whatever the process of moulding may have been, it
left the inner surface in a rough or uneven condition.
Moulded cylindrical cups of greenish glass, exhibiting chariot races
and gladiatorial combats in relief, and arranged in tiers with
appropriate inscriptions, have been sparingly found. The portion of one
found at Hartlip presents a charioteer in a biga on the point of reaching the metae,
and on the tier below two gladiators. A perfect cup of the kind
from Colchester in the British Museum has a chariot race in two tiers,
with an inscription above to the effect that Crescens beats Hierax,
Olympias, and Antilocus.2
The beaker-like cup G, from a grave at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, and
now in the British Museum, has a singularly modern appearance. It is of
rather thick glass with a faint greenish honey tinge, and its
ornamentation consists of oval depressions, cut out on the lapidary's
wheel. Pieces of precisely similar cups have been found at London,
Caerwent, Gellygaer, Birrens, Ardoch, Wilderspool, and probably
elsewhere, as such pieces may be easily mistaken for modern cut glass.
The little cup J, in the Guildhall collection, presents another type of
decoration rarely met with. It is of thin yellowish blown glass, with
applied 'nail-head' ornamentation.
The little blown glass bottles, commonly known as lachrymatories or unguentaria,
were not confined to funerary purposes, but were in general use for
holding perfumes, unguents, and served all the purposes of small
bottles with us. It was mentioned
on page 140,
that large bottles of the forms of A C were often used to hold the
ashes of the dead; less often these were placed in large globular glass
jars. The one shown in Fig. 52 is a simple example, about
9 ins. in diameter, from a burial in Lockham Wood, and now in the
Maidstone Museum. More usually they had two handles and occasionally
glass lids, and a good example, with the leaden cist in which it was
found in Warwick Square, London, is in the British Museum. It is not
unlikely that these vessels were specially made for funerary purposes.
Very little is known of the sources of manufacture of Roman glass-ware in Britain. In 1859, Mr. Roach Smith knew of no vestige of Roman glass furnaces in this island;
nor did Mr. Thomas Wright, sixteen years later, but he suggested
that water-rolled lumps of coloured glass found on the beach near
Brighton were derived from the site of Roman glass-works which had long
been encroached upon by the sea. Even as late as 1907, Mr. Edward
Dillon, in his book on glass, could only suggest that if anywhere in
England, traces of such works might be expected between the Medway and
the Isle of Thanet. Mr. Thomas May, however, has been able to make
a strong case for the manufacture of glass at Wilderspool near
Warrington in Roman times. During his excavations he uncovered the
remains of five workshops containing peculiar ovens. These were singly
or in pairs in dense clay platforms, hardened by fire. Some were oval,
2 ft. 6 ins. to 5 ft. long, having at one end a flue or
stoke-hole reached from a hearth, and at the opposite end or in the
side, another flue, blocked at the end in several instances with a
flag-stone. Others were simple rounded cavities with a stoke-hole.
Mr. May considered that the former were annealing ovens or
'lires,' and that the latter had contained melting-pts. In the vicinity
of these structures, he found several lumps of crude glass, glass-scum,
calcined flint, a lump of chalk, and pieces of broken glass all more
or less confirmatory of the manufacture of glass; also a stone slab
with a shallow recess, 12 by 8 ins., which he regarded as a mould for window-glass.3
To what extent glass was made in Roman Britain is at present unknown.
The glass vessels found in this country resemble those of Roman Gaul,
where the manufacture obtained a foothold as early as Pliny's time, and
flourished greatly, to judge from the known sites of glass-works and
the wealth of specimens in the French museums. Our Roman glassware
closely resembles that of northern Gaul, and it has long been noticed
that the parts of England nearest Gaul Kent, London, and Essex have
been most prolific in this ware. The glass may have been largely
imported from Gaul, or Gaulish glass-workers may have been settled in
these contiguous parts of England. Either would explain the relative
plentifulness, and perhaps both contributed to it.
The metallic vessels of Roman Britain that have survived are of bronze,
pewter, and silver, the first being the most numerous, and the last the
rarest; but as a class these vessels are among the rarer 'finds' of the
era. It must not be inferred from this that they were correspondingly
rare during that era. One ve of metal would outlast many of pottery and
glass, and, when worn out, its metallic value would save it from the
rubbish heap. Most of the examples in our collections have been
deposited with the dead or purposely hidden.
Whether beaten or cast, these vessels indicate, as a class, a perfect
mastery of the metal-worker over his materials. Their curves are
graceful and precise, and, when ornamented, the ornamentation is
usually finely and carefully executed. Occasionally they exhibit
engraved decoration; less so, enamelled.
Of the bronze vessels, two forms are noteworthy the ampulla or jug, and a pan with a straight horizontal handle known as the patera, also as the patina or patella.
Both in form and decoration, these exhibit little provincial influence.
Precisely similar vessels have been abundantly found at Pompeii, and
its region was an important centre of the manufacture, exporting its
products to Britain and even beyond the limits of the empire. There is
no evidence that vessels of the kind were made in Britain; but it is
almost certain that some were made in Gaul, either by Italian artisans
or by natives who copied Italian forms.
Four examples of jugs are shown in Fig. 54, A, B, C, D. The first was associated with the patera, F, in a grave near Canterbury.4
It so closely resembles some Pompeian examples that there is little
doubt it came from the same source. The next two are good examples of
the plainer wares of the kind, the one from Tewkesbury and the other
from Winchester, both in the British Museum. The last is from one of
the Bartlow Hills tombs,5 in which it was associated with a similar patera to the one just referred to, and is decorated with a band of niello
below the neck. The plainer jugs are usually without
spouts, as in the two examples given; and in the more elaborate, the
spout is sometimes produced by an angled indentation on each side, thus
giving the mouth a pleasing trefoiled shape. Two jugs of this form were
obtained from the Bartlow Hills and another from a grave at
Sittingbourne. Almost invariably the handle terminates below in a human
or an animal's head, or a small medallion. In our Bartlow Hills example
it is an ox's skull.
Fig. 54. Examples of Roman Bronze Vessels. (1/4)
Two forms of the patera
can be distinguished a shallow one with the bottom usually
bossed up in the centre, and the handle cylindrical and ending in an
animal's head; and a deep one with a flat bottom and a wide flat
handle. F is a typical example of the first, from the grave near
Canterbury. Two of the Bartlow Hills paterae resembled it, but the third6 differed in the ornamentation of the handle, which, instead of being fluted or reeded, had a cippus,
masks, basket of fruit, and other objects mostly of some religious
significance. Another found near South Shields had an inscription to
Apollo round the boss, and there is a silver example found in
Gracechurch Street, in the British Museum.
The second form is of more frequent occurrence, and G is an example from Herringfleet,7
which is representative of a large number. The sides convexly taper to
the flat bottom, and the handle terminates in a disc with a central
hole, the curves of its concave sides flowing into those of the mouth
and disc. The disc is relieved with concentric corrugations, and the
bowl with a bead below the lip. Beyond these, ornamentation rarely goes
further, but in the present example the upper surface of the handle has
a conventional thyrsus, and, what is rare, the maker's name, Quatinus.
Five vessels of this form, graduated in size, have been found at Castle Howard, and two of the handles are stamped P. CIPI POLIB. and C. CIPI POLVIBI.
Another in Wigtownshire bears the same maker's name. The Cipii appear
to have been a firm in or near Herculaneum, and their products have
been found as far away as France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and
Denmark, besides Britain. 'Nests' of these vessels
have been found at Abergele, Helmsdale in Sutherlandshire, and
Irchester in Northamptonshire. A variant of the form has a
recurved lip, and often a slightly recurved foot. One found at Swinton
Park, Yorkshire,8 had a handle ornamented with a Thyrsus almost identical with that of the Herringfleet 'skillet.'
The handles are sometimes elaborately ornamented, and there are fine examples in the British Museum. That of a patera from Prickwillow, Cambridgeshire,9
bearing the name of Bodvogenus, is adorned with a winged genius,
dolphins, shell, and sea-serpents, the grip being enchased with foliage
filled in with enamel. That of a silver patera from County Durham,10
which when found contained a number of silver and gold finger-rings and
other articles, is enriched with scrolly and refined arabesques, and it
is inscribed to the Mother Goddesses MATR FAB DVBIT. Four detached handles, part of a large silver hoard found at Capheaton, Northumberland,11
in 1747, are ornamented in relief with mythological subjects and
emblems, and these include the Labours of Hercules, Mercury, Bacchus
and a moenad, Neptune and a nereid, and Minerva.
The uses, like the names, of these vessels is the subject of a
diversity of opinions. They have been regarded as the equivalents of
the modern saucepans, as vessels for serving stews at the table, as
combining both functions, as wine-measures, and as libation or
sacrificial utensils. Against the first hypothesis it has been urged
that they never exhibit the effects of fire, also that the high and
beautiful finish of many of them is not consistent with their being
kitchen utensils at all. If, however, they were held over charcoal
braziers, not for cooking, but simply for warming viands, the effects
of fire would scarcely be visible, and they might very well have also
conveyed the foods to the table. On the other hand, some were certainly
dedicated to religious purposes, as the inscriptions on British and
Continental silver examples prove. Poorer temples probably had bronze
services, and in the household, metallic and other vessels may have
been reserved for offerings at the domestic shrine. It is noteworthy
that the paterae figured on the
altars resemble those of our first division, and are nearly always
associated with ewers, just as they were in the Bartlow Hills. The patera appears to have been a saucer-like vessel for liquids only, and derived from the Greek phiale, both being used for libations. The central boss or omphalos
of the latter provided a small hollow underneath for a finger to be
caught in when the vessel was held. The Romans or Etruscans added the
handle, and the omphalos survived as an ornamental feature. The patina and its diminutive, patella,
appear to have been used for solid or semi-solid foods, either in
cooking or for serving up at the table; and perhaps these terms should
be confined to the vessels of our second division.
Shallow bowls of thin bronze ranging from about
8 to 14 ins. in diameter, with or without two loop-handles, were
in regular use, and fine examples may be seen in the British and York
Museums. They are excellently made and usually quite plain, but the
handles are often slightly ornamented. Fig. 54, E, is a peculiarly
graceful example found in one of the Bartlow Hills.12 As it was associated, like the paterae
in two of the other tombs of these 'hills,' with a bronze ewer, it
presumably had a similar ritual use. A silver bowl with a flanged
lip, highly ornamented on the upper surface, was found at Corbridge
Bronze colanders or strainers have occasionally been found, but rarely
perfect in consequence of their thinness. They are hemispherical, with
or without handles, and the holes are usually arranged in patterns. One
with a wide flanged rim was associated with a bronze patina at Kyngadle13 in Carmarthenshire, now in the Welsh Museum, and a similar one, but lacking its flange, was found at Ribchester. An Ickleton14
example had a long, flat, horizontal handle, the grip having incurved
sides, and precisely similar strainers have been found at Pompeii.
Flat-bottomed trays, described also as plates or salvers, have been
sparingly found. There is a small example in the Guildhall, with a
flat, engrailed rim, the shoulder and edge being neatly finished with a
bead. Globular bronze camp-kettles have been
found at Newstead. Bronze lamps will be referred to in Chapter XII.
vessels were sometimes adorned with champlevι enamel. These were cast
with sinkings to receive the enamel. A remarkably fine example was
obtained from the Bartlow Hills. It was a small globular situla,15
with moulded foot, recurved lip, and a movable handle attached by ring
arising from acanthus leaves on the sides of the vessel. The enamelled
decoration consisted of belts of foliage and simple geometrical
patterns, in translucent blue, opaque red, and green, and the exposed
bronze had been gilded. Several small bowls or cups with similar
decoration have been found, and notably one near Marlborough16 with a line of inscription below the lip, ABALLAVA VXELLODVM G AMBOGLAN S BANNA · A. MAIS
names of Roman places in the neighbourhood of Carlisle. Possibly it
was made for some society connected with these places. In the British
Museum are two cups of similar character, the one from Brougham near
Standon, and the other from Harwood, Northumberland. These enamelled
vessels appear to have emanated from a common source, and probably
As already stated, pewter is less frequent than bronze. A large
table service of this alloy, carefully secreted by burial, was
discovered at Icklingham, Suffolk, in 1840, and about forty pieces
of it are now in the British Museum. In the same museum are thirty-two
pieces of another service found similarly buried at Appleshaw,
Hampshire,17 in 1897, and another hoard found near Ely in 1858.18 A Roman well at Brislington, Bristol,19
yielded seven pewter jugs in 1899, and other examples have been
found at Caerwent, Colchester, London, and elsewhere. Pewter is more
susceptible to chemical change by contact with the soil than bronze,
and the Roman examples are usually in a friable condition, with a
peculiar pearly sheen. The proportions of tin and lead in the Roman
examples vary, and as a rule the percentage of the latter is greater
than in the English alloy.
The most characteristic vessels in Roman pewter are large
circular platters or lances.
There are ten from the Appleshaw, eleven from the Icklingham, and six
from the Ely hoards, in the British Museum. Occasionally they whether
square instead of circular. Of the other Appleshaw forms, five are
hemispherical bowls from
4 to 6 ins. in diameter, and three others have a curved flange
below the lip a form frequent in the redglaze pottery
(Fig. 44, No. 22). Several cups reproduce familiar forms in Castor, New Forest, and kindred wares
(Fig. 46, No. 3).
The rest of the hoard consists of two jugs, several saucers, a curious
chalice, and an oval dish with a flat handle at one end and ornamented
with a fish in the centre. The decoration of the Roman pewter, which is
almost confined to the lances, is very
distinctive, consisting of incised lines filled with black bituminous
inlays. The prevailing designs present a framework of interlacing
bands, in the interspaces of which are small ornaments, and the central
feature is often a large rosette a scheme of decoration which
recalls that of many mosaic pavements and has a distinct Byzantine
feeling. On one of the Appleshaw saucers is shown the 'chi-rho' symbol,
and it also occurs on a Roman cake of pewter found in the Thames at
It is noteworthy that as a class the pewter forms and decoration have
little in common with those of bronze. The old English pewterer
regarded his material as a substitute for silver, and took the simpler
silver forms for his models. This is true to some extent of the Roman
pewterer, but he certainly did not copy bronze vessels. Many of the
Appleshaw vessels were copies of the current table-ware in pottery, and
were probably from silver models. The decoration and especially the
Christian symbol are suggestive that the use of pewter came in late in
Roman Britain; and this is further suggested by the fact that pewter at
Minton was associated with coins ranging from A.D. 360 to 410, and a hoard of 1400 coins from Constantine to Gratian in Cambridgeshire was deposited in a pewter jar.21
The most important stone utensil was the revolving quern (mola versatilis),
entire stones or fragments of which are constantly found on
Romano-British domestic sites. Although invented only two or three
centuries before our era, it was already established in Britain, and
probably had displaced the older saddle-quern (mola trusatilis) in the southern parts of the island, at the time of the Roman conquest.
The typical quern of Roman Britain differed from its predecessor in
being larger and flatter. The grinding-face of the nether stone was
still convex (that of the upper stone being correspondingly concave),
and this form was due to a mistaken notion that it aided the discharge
of the meal. Externally, it was circular with a more or less convex
summit. The 'eye' of the upper stone was more or less dished above to
serve as a hopper, and frequently its funnel-shaped hollow had a raised
rim. The prevailing size was 15 ins. in diameter, but specimens 2
or 3 ins. smaller or larger are occasionally found. The
grinding-faces were often transversely grooved to facilitate the flow
of the meal.
The lower stone had the necessary central hole for the wooden or iron
pin on which the upper stone revolved. In the simpler and presumably
earlier querns, the rynd or block which contained the socket for the
pin was of wood. This was sufficiently narrow that when driven into the
'eye' it left a space on either side for the passage of the grain. In
the more elaborate querns the rynd was of iron with two or more arms,
the ends of which fitted into grooves on the under surface of the
stone. The wooden handle was usually flat and horizontal, and was
driven into a wedge-shaped sinking in the upper surface, and only
rarely into a lateral socket. In a few instances, querns have retained
their handles, a notable example being one found at Silchester.22
Most of the examples found in this country are of native stones the
old red sandstone and conglomerate and millstone-grit being commonly
used for the purpose. But the favourite material was the volcanic rock
quarried at Andernach on the
Rhine, which has been extensively worked into
mill-stones from Roman times downwards, and querns made from it were
imported into this country in large numbers.
Stone mortars of two forms, the tall and the shallow, were used in
Roman Britain. The former resembled in the depth of their cavities the
old-fashioned brass mortars of the apothecary and the kitchen, and
externally they had, as a rule, the tapering form of a modern
flower-pot. Their shape and thickness indicate that they were used for
pounding rather than for mixing substances. These mortars are rather
rare. One a foot high has been found at Camelon, and fragments of three
others at Bar Hill.23 Another of different type, with a semicircular lug on one side of its rim, was dug up at Wroxeter.
The cavity of the shallow form usually approximated to that of a
saucer, but with sides curving upwards; but not seldom the sides were
abruptly vertical and the bottom concave or even flat. Almost
invariably the rims had two or more lateral rectangular projections or
lugs, obviously to support the vessel when set in a cavity in a table
or bench. These mortars were any other all sizes from about
6 to 18 ins. in diameter, and were of various kinds of stone, the
smaller being sometimes of marble. They were apparently used for
triturating powders, grinding and mixing colours, mashing fruits and
foods, and other kindred purposes. As, in the case of the earthenware
mortars, pestles have not been found, we may infer that they were of
Stone was also used for a variety of other utensils and implements, as
large weights, spindle-whorls, quoits, whetstones, troughs, mullers,
heavy mauls, pounders, net-sinkers, and loom-weights. At Wroxeter,
London, Rushmore, and Bar Hill have been found small rectangular
palettes of marble, slate, and other fine stone, which were probably
used for mixing colours or unguents.24
The Author's Notes:
As AP within a circle at Great Chesterford, Arch. Journ. xvii, p126.
2. See also, Brit. Arch. Assoc. v, p371.
3. Warrington's Roman Remains, pp37, 82.
4. Proc. Soc. Ant. 2, xviii, p279.
5. Archaeologia, xxvi, p33.
6. Archaeologia, xxviii, p2.
7. Proc. Soc. Ant. 2, xvi, p237.
8. Arch. Journ. vi, p47.
9. Archaeologia, xxviii, p436.
10. Arch. Journ. viii, p35.
11. Archaeologia, xv, p393.
12. Archaeologia, xxix, p3.
13. Arch. Camb. 6, i. p21.
14. Brit. Arch. Assoc. iv, p376.
15. Archaeologia, xxvi, plate xxxv.
16. Arch. Journ. xiv, 282.
17. Archaeologia, lvi, p7.
18. Arch. Journ. xxxii, p330.
19. Vict. Hist. Somerset, i, p305.
20. Proc. Soc. Ant. 2, ii, p235.
21. Ibid. 2, xii, p56.
22. Archaeologia, lvi, p240.
23. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxxv, p414; Roman Forts on Bar Hill, p89.
24. Uriconium, p177; Pitt-Rivers, Excavations, i, p67; Roman Forts on Bar Hill, p90.