Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

Fig. 4 Recorded heights for Group B and C ewers (© National Museum of Wales).
domestic vessels such as cauldrons has been reported from
Lübeck, Germany (13th century)53, Odense, Denmark and
Uppsala, Sweden54.
Th e distribution of recorded ewers (fi g. 6), with an apparent
concentration in southern Scotland and Ireland, needs to be
considered with caution – being infl uenced by diff erential survival
patterns and collecting practices, and uneven reporting.
Moreover, it is unclear whether items without secure provenances,
now in private collections, were originally ‘locally’
derived from their present country of residence. Nevertheless,
the plotted distribution shows the popularity of Group B/C
ewers in Britain, also suggested by the clarity with which they
are depicted in manuscripts made in England. Certainly such
ewer forms were familiar to illuminators working in London,
as commonly used vessels associated with hand-washing in
53 Gläser 1988.
54 Anund et al. 1992, 221-242.
Tripod ewers from medieval households 161
style (and supporting ‘English’, or at least British, manufacture
for many examples). Nonetheless, Group Bb ewers with debased
chevron spouts appear to be widely distributed in Britain and
on the Continent.
Workshops manufactured a wide range of objects, from domestic
candlesticks to cauldrons and larger objects such as lecterns
and bells, and it seems likely that the letters appearing on ewers
may have been be re-applied from bell production55. In view of
the diversifi cation in production by some bell founders, it is
also interesting to note similarities in form (though not scale)
between the pear-shaped bodies of ewers and depictions of
early guns produced by bronze foundries. Best known is the
vase-shaped weapon illustrated in Walter de Milemete’s treatise
De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum of 1326/756 –
sometimes called a ‘tulip gun’ because of its bulbous end and
55 Cherry 1977, 200. 56 Oxford, Christ Church, MS 92 fol. 70v; Smith
1999, fi g. 1.