Two samples
This fabric has a tendency to be overfired. It is maroon (10R 5/4) in the break with red-brown surfaces, slightly purplish (10R 5/8) in cast. As a result of overfiring it is hard and smooth to the feel. The fracture is very dense and sintered, with a concoidal break. Slip is of good quality with a silky feel, though not very glossy, and small blisters sometimes form on it. Brush marks are clearly visible. Decorated forms occurring in this fabric are Dragendorff 30 and Dragendorff 37, while plain wares comprise Dragendorff 18 (or more probably 18/31), Dragendorff 33, Dragendorff 35 and Curle 11 (Webster 1975, 167–8).
Inclusions are barely visible in the sintered matrix: a few grains of quartz, black iron-rich fragments, limestone and silver mica, all 0.1–0.2mm, can be seen.
An isotropic clay with rare muscovite mica is viewed under the petrological microscope. The matrix contains common silt-sized quartz, and fewer opaques and limestone. Rare larger grains of quartz and feldspar measure up to 0.3mm, while several siltstones, up to 0.6mm, are visible.
Although no kilns are known, samian moulds have been found near Wiggonholt, Sussex and distribution of the finds also supports Sussex as the source for this fabric (Webster 1975, 163).
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
Marsh, G D, 1979 Three vessels by the Aldgate-Pulborough potter from London, Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc 30, 185–7
Simpson, G, 1952 The Aldgate potter: a maker of Romano-British samian ware, J Roman Stud 42, 68–71
Webster, P V, 1975 More British samian ware by the Aldgate-Pulborough potter, Britannia 6, 163–70
Williams, D F, 1979 Petrological analysis, in Three vessels by the Aldgate-Pulborough potter from London (G Marsh), Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc 30, 186–7