DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13856#0066
National Safe Deposit Company''s premises. 57
too, there is the same infinite variety and an indication of the difficulty which
there must ever be in assigning the manufacture of this particular class of ware
to any especial locality. "No question," writes Mr. S. Birch, F.S.A.* "has excited
more controversy among antiquaries than the place where it was made: Samos,
Aretium, Rome, Modena, ancient Gaul, and Britain (into which it seems to have
been imported) have been supposed to be the sites of its manufacture." He quotes
also the passage in Pliny which refers to eight of the principal places noted for its
fabrication, and how among them Arretium or Arezzo was famous for its dinner-
services, and Surrentum, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Naples, for its drinking
cups. Mr. Boach Smith, F.S.A. has always been of the opinion that it was imported
into Britain, strengthening his belief upon the circumstance of potteries for
Samian ware having been found in France in the immediate vicinity of the Bhine,
and on the numerous potters' names of Gaulish origin, which are identical with
many that have been observed upon the ware discovered in this country. No
trace either of any pottery that can be assigned to its manufacture has been yet
recorded as having been found in Britain. The discoveries in the Upchurch
marshes by the banks of the Medway have sufficiently indicated the local manu-
facture of other descriptions of earthenware, and the researches of the late Mr.
Artis at Castor, near Beterborough, revealed the existence of potteries to the
extent of upwards of twenty miles, which had once been employed in the fabrica-
tion of the characteristic Durobrivian ware; but it does not appear that any
remains have been yet noticed that are sufficient to establish the conclusion that
the peculiar class of pottery before us is of native manufacture. .On the other
hand it is difficult to believe that such a branch of industrial art should be so
neglected in a mixed community as that of the inhabitants of Boman Britain as
to render it necessary for the most fashionable ware in use to be imported
from abroad; for we find the various trades and professions practised in Italy
flourishing in London, Wroxeter, Silchester, and other important cities of this
distant province of the empire. Artificers of all kinds and from every nation
must have been here and earned their livelihood, as now, from the exercise of
their craft; the material was at hand, and experiment has proved that from the
clay beds of London such descriptions can be selected as are in every way
suitable for the production of this pottery. So extensively was it used, and so
varied is it in its form and character, that numerous reasons could be assigned
* Ancient Pottery and Porcelain, ii. 347. Pliny, N. H. xxxv. 12—46.
h
too, there is the same infinite variety and an indication of the difficulty which
there must ever be in assigning the manufacture of this particular class of ware
to any especial locality. "No question," writes Mr. S. Birch, F.S.A.* "has excited
more controversy among antiquaries than the place where it was made: Samos,
Aretium, Rome, Modena, ancient Gaul, and Britain (into which it seems to have
been imported) have been supposed to be the sites of its manufacture." He quotes
also the passage in Pliny which refers to eight of the principal places noted for its
fabrication, and how among them Arretium or Arezzo was famous for its dinner-
services, and Surrentum, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Naples, for its drinking
cups. Mr. Boach Smith, F.S.A. has always been of the opinion that it was imported
into Britain, strengthening his belief upon the circumstance of potteries for
Samian ware having been found in France in the immediate vicinity of the Bhine,
and on the numerous potters' names of Gaulish origin, which are identical with
many that have been observed upon the ware discovered in this country. No
trace either of any pottery that can be assigned to its manufacture has been yet
recorded as having been found in Britain. The discoveries in the Upchurch
marshes by the banks of the Medway have sufficiently indicated the local manu-
facture of other descriptions of earthenware, and the researches of the late Mr.
Artis at Castor, near Beterborough, revealed the existence of potteries to the
extent of upwards of twenty miles, which had once been employed in the fabrica-
tion of the characteristic Durobrivian ware; but it does not appear that any
remains have been yet noticed that are sufficient to establish the conclusion that
the peculiar class of pottery before us is of native manufacture. .On the other
hand it is difficult to believe that such a branch of industrial art should be so
neglected in a mixed community as that of the inhabitants of Boman Britain as
to render it necessary for the most fashionable ware in use to be imported
from abroad; for we find the various trades and professions practised in Italy
flourishing in London, Wroxeter, Silchester, and other important cities of this
distant province of the empire. Artificers of all kinds and from every nation
must have been here and earned their livelihood, as now, from the exercise of
their craft; the material was at hand, and experiment has proved that from the
clay beds of London such descriptions can be selected as are in every way
suitable for the production of this pottery. So extensively was it used, and so
varied is it in its form and character, that numerous reasons could be assigned
* Ancient Pottery and Porcelain, ii. 347. Pliny, N. H. xxxv. 12—46.
h