Raritas: Rarities

Antiquities -Top Shelf
The objects on the top shelf are examples of the oldest surviving European pottery. The vessels may look strange but in fact they were used for tasks still familiar to us today – carrying water, drinking ale with friends, relieving ourselves, and holding the ashes of our dead.

Relics - Middle Shelf

Gilt - Lower Shelf
Gold has always been the most precious and sought after material. Ceramics with gold-leaf decoration –known as gilt or gilding – literally reflected the wealth and power of the owner. Examples of eighteenthcentury English earthenware with gold-leaf decoration like the examples here are especially rare.