Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

now to the ‘Master of the Prado Adoration of the Magi’
(active c.1470-1480)35. Th euerkauff -Liederwald has noted
the illustration of a ewer (Group G) in a drawing by Dürer
dated c. 150636.
4 Additions to the corpus
Many ewers (whole or fragmentary) await detailed study in
museum collections and within excavation assemblages. While
a complete survey of additional ewers found in Europe is not
possible here, it is worth drawing attention to some examples
that have come to light since Lewis and Th euerkauff -Liederwald
published their lists.
Th is paper was prompted by the discovery in 1997 of a
complete example of Group Bb at Bettws Newydd, Monmouthshire,
about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north of Usk (fi g. 3;
Appendix 2, no. 26). It has a weight of 1409.7 g and a capacity
when full to the rim of 1½ pints (840 ml, compared to 1¾ pints
for the Lanrwst ewer; Appendix 2, no. 140). Th e top of the
spout is level with the rim, and notched on each side at the
mouth end, and has chevrons on top typical of the debased
form of animal head. With a height of 21.2 cm, the Bettws
Newydd ewer falls in the mid-range for Welsh fi nds (174-
260 mm), and is closest to the examples from Strata Florida
Abbey, ‘Kenfi g’, and Corwen37. Recorded height ranges for
Groups B and C are presented in fi g. 4. Th e ewer was found
within or close to the silted-up depression around the low
mound known as Castell Crov, at a depth of about 35-40 cm.
Tide marks of corrosion within the vessel suggest gradual silting
up, supporting its loss in a moat or waterlogged ground.
Bettws Newydd (‘new chapel’) lies within the Hundred of
Raglan, and in the Middle Ages formed part of the Lordship of
Abergavenny. In 1963, trial excavation at the site, which was
considered to be a possible castle motte established that the
mound was artifi cial, but found no clear evidence for a castle
ditch38. An area of silting was noted between the mound and a
concentric berm around it, and Knight concluded that the
mound may have been a large Bronze Age barrow. Th e site was
rejected as a castle by Cathcart King39, and an explanation for
the loss of this ewer in what may have been waterlogged ground
around this mound remains elusive.
Of the examples from Scotland now in Dumfries Museum, all
share the curved spouts of Lewis’s Group B, but three share plain
spout ends (Group Ba; Appendix II, nos 15-17; fi g. 5: 1-3). Th e
example from Whitelawside Farm, Nicholforest, Canonbie,
Dumfriesshire, has tripod legs with paw feet40. One of these also
has a narrow vertical rather than splayed neck, ending with a
thickened cordon rim (fi g. 5: 3). Two ewers belong to Group Bb,
though the bellies appear squatter and less rounded then
the Bettws Newydd example: one reputedly from ‘Dumfries’
35 Th e Burrell Collection, acc. no. 35.533.
36 Th euerkauff -Liederwald 1988, 177 and fi g. 40.
37 Lewis et al. 1987, 81; Appendix 2, nos 27, 28, 30.
38 Knight 1963, 125-126.
39 King 1983.
40 DUMFM: 1993.29, not illustrated; Richardson
1999, 27-29.
41 Walford & Way 1856, 74.
42 eg Turner 1982, 25.
43 eg Blair & Blair 1991, 82-5; 93-95; Brownsword
1991; Brownsword & Pitt 1996, 12.
Tripod ewers from medieval households 159
(Appendix 2, no. 40; fi g. 5: 5), and one found in peat-moss at
Beuchan, Keir, Dumfriesshire (Appendix 2, no. 62; fi g. 5: 4).
Of the tripod ewers from Ireland, three are of Group Ba and
thirteen of Group Bb, including a well-preserved ewer from Co.
Meath with a slightly curved spout (Appendix 2, no. 76) and
one of Group Bc with paw feet and a spout bifurcating into two
separate heads from Roosky, Co. Monaghan (C. Bourke, in
litt.; Appendix 2, no. 138).
5 Discussion: manufacture, distribution
and use
Early tripod ewer fi nds were described as ‘brass pots’41, and
for many years the view was that they were made in Flanders42.
Analytical techniques available since the 1970s have now been
applied to characterize the alloys used in their manufacture, in
terms of the relative amounts of zinc, lead and tin in the copper
alloys43. Th e paper published in 1987 by Lewis et al. has
resulted in an occasional assumption that 14th-century ewers
are of Welsh manufacture. In fact, this research established
through metallurgical analysis that it is probable that most
were manufactured on a wider scale in the Low Countries and
Britain44. Brownsword’s analysis of some 140 ewers and jugs
has shown that many are of lead-rich leaded bronzes associated
with English manufacture, while others contain higher
levels of zinc45. However, he notes that the haphazard nature
of metal supply during the 14th century might have required
the remelting of damaged and discarded brass objects, resulting
in greater variability of alloy composition than that found
in later products46. Th us it has been suggested that the relatively
high zinc component of the alloy for the Group A tripod
ewer from the Gower (18.3%) may represent remelting by an
English founder of scrap leaded bronze with imported continental
brass47.
Metallurgical analysis by Mary Davis has shown the alloy of
the Group Bb ewer from Bettws Newydd to be a heavily leaded
bronze (around 15-25% lead; Appendix I), though these semiquantitative
results need to be used with caution. Th e zinc/
tin content (5.1% Zn, 4.2% Sn) is generally similar to the composition
of ewers from Strata Florida and Llandefalle (though
they have lower lead content: 4.31-4.38%); however, the overall
alloy composition appears closest to that for the ewer
from Corwen (copper 67.1%, zinc 4.87%, tin 6.59%, lead
18.8%). Lewis et al. have argued that the Welsh examples may
have been of English manufacture, and the high lead content
for the Bettws Newydd ewer suggests that it came from a
similar source48. Group Bb ewers from the Netherlands
include an example with a high tin content from the
Mariënburg, in the centre of Nijmegen49, probably associated
with the Mariaburg convent.
44 Lewis et al 1987, 88-89.
45 Brownsword 2004, 96-97.
46 Ibid., 94.
47 Brownsword & Pitt 1996, 11; Fowler 1996, 5.
48 Lewis et al. 1987, 88.
49 Van Enckevort & Th ijssen 2000, 48.