Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

(small) albarelli, the decoration is oft en limited to parallel horizontal
lines in diff erent colours and very simple geometric
designs (fi g. 8). Th e second group comprises – amongst others
– stylised daisy patterns, leaves and abstract fl oral designs
derived from the so-called ‘Persian palmet’.
Floral motifs can also be devided in two main categories: one
comparable with the Italian a foglie maiolica (fi g. 9), the other
more close to the alla porcelana style (fi g. 10). One bowl should
be mentioned in particular from a typological point of view as
well as for the decoration (fi g. 11-12). Th e open bowl with a
protruding rim has a light blue surface. Th e interior is covered
with a foglie decoration, while the outside bears an alla porcelana
frieze. Th is piece is unparalleled in Antwerp. Only one
comparable vessel of which the exterior is also decorated in a
similar way, excavated in the Steen, can be mentioned11. Th e
blurred decoration identifi es this bowl as a waster, proving it to
be of Antwerp origin.
Only three vessels bear (parts of ) a fi gurative decoration, two
plates and a bowl. On one of the plates a landscape is depicted,
on the second one the leg of a horse (?) can be seen. Th e latter
plate does not fi t with the majority of the material. It is a high
quality fabric bearing a fi ne decoration. Th is plate probably has
to be dated closer to the middle of the 16th century.
A fi ne example of a Madonna and child is depicted on a porringer
(fi g. 13). Although the design is rather clumsy, the colours
are very bright and the vessel is to be compared to the
famous series of porringers from the Maagdenhuis12. An almost
identical scene is depicted on a bowl excavated in Grote Kauwenberg
at the site of Antwerp University.
11 Veeckman & Dumortier 1999, 185, cat. nr. 33. 12 Dumortier 2002, 138, fi g. 57.
Sherds from a church. Maiolica production waste from the Augustinian friary in Antwerp 181
Fig. 4 Impression of a stilt on a misfi red
plate with checkerboard pattern (© Antwerp
Archaeology Section, Jan Marstboom).
Fig. 5 Type 1 plate with checkerboard pattern decoration (©
Antwerp Archaeology Section, Jan Marstboom).
Th e use of sgraffi to as a special decoration technique should be
mentioned. Scratched decoration, made by removing the colour
and making the underlying surface visible again, is applied
to the rim of one plate (fi g. 14) as well as to the outside of a