Part of an incised stoneware blacking bottle, marked with the manufacturer’s name and address and ‘BLACKI[NG BOTTLE]’. Blacking bottles were identified in this manner to avoid the excise duty levied on stoneware bottles in the period 1817-1834, from which they were exempt. Found on the Thames foreshore.
See now the comments below. The ‘BLACK’ is part of the word BLACKFRIARS. The fragment comes not from a Blacking Bottle but from an early stoneware Hamilton.
This will almost certainly be Blackfriars, rather Blacking Bottle. I`ll put it on the bottle diggers forum and see if anyone recognizes it,
Thanks Roger – you’re quite right. I’d been meaning to update this post after spying an intact example matching this fragment in Alan Blakeman’s display case at Elsecar. It’s actually part of an early stoneware Hamilton. I noted down the name and address on the Elsecar example but have lost my notes!
Here are the details. It’s a stoneware Hamilton, which was embossed:
ROYAL AERATED
WATER WORKS
13 THOMAS STREET
STAMFORD STREET
BLACKFRIARS