Fortnum & Mason’s Caviare Pot

Fortnum & Mason’s Caviare Pot

Ceramic caviare pot, with printed lettering: ‘Finest Astrachan Caviare, imported by Fortnum & Mason Ltd’, etc. A Russian delicacy consumed at Holme Hale Hall, Norfolk.
Russian Bear’s Grease Pot Lid

Russian Bear’s Grease Pot Lid

Transfer-printed pot lid, showing a single angry bear: ‘Genuine Russian Bear’s Grease – For Beautifying and Nourishing the Hair’ Exact provenance uncertain – north of England, 1880s site
Russian Bear’s Grease Pot Lid

Russian Bear’s Grease Pot Lid

Pot lid with printed design of bears against a mountainous backdrop: ‘Genuine Russian Bears’ Grease – for Increasing the Growth of Hair’. From an 1880s tip in Yorkshire.
Beef Extract Pot

Beef Extract Pot

‘Extractum Carnis “Liebig” – One Pound of this Extract contains thirty Pounds of Beef without fat Bone or tendon. To add to boiling water. C. Van Abbot, original importer, Cavendish Square, London, 2 ounces’. A small white ceramic pot...
Bear’s Grease Pot Lid

Bear’s Grease Pot Lid

Large (4 shillings) size pot lid for James Atkinson’s Bear’s Grease – a pomade for the hair. Dug from a dump of c. 1885 in Rugby, Warwickshire. Genuine bear’s grease was imported from Russia.
Batty’s Nabob Pickle Jar

Batty’s Nabob Pickle Jar

Batty’s Nabob Pickle (showing a nabob, seated, consuming pickle from a bottle): ‘only genuine when secured with Bett’s capsule’ (referring to a patent closure device). Late VIctorian. Provenance uncertain (Yorkshire).
Hungarian Mineral Water Bottle

Hungarian Mineral Water Bottle

Green glass bottle (base only), embossed on the base ‘Hunyadi Janos, Saxlehners Bitterquelle’, for mineral water. It was regarded as a cure for constipation. This was imported and consumed at Kirton Rectory in the 1900s.
Jam and Marmalade Jars

Jam and Marmalade Jars

Jars for Keiller’s Dundee Marmalade and John Moir’s Red Currant Jam. Found amid unscavenged domestic waste, 1890s.
Cream Pot

Cream Pot

Base of a cylindrical cream pot from an unidentified dairy in Hastings. Above ‘Hastings’ is the word ‘Ro???’ Can anyone identify the dairy? Found amid ash and domestic refuse of the 1890s at the King’s Lynn ash yard, this had travelled...
Tiny Chinese Specimen Vase

Tiny Chinese Specimen Vase

Tiny white ceramic specimen vase, painted with red floral decoration, made for the Chinese export market. This was one of three oriental vases discarded after the death of Mary Everett in 1908, probably because her daughters did not share her tastes. Other crockery...
Oriental Vase

Oriental Vase

White ceramic oriental vase with blue and white painted decoration, discarded with two others after the death of Mary Everett in 1908.
Oriental Vase

Oriental Vase

Imported oriental white ceramic flower vase, with transfer-printed design in blue, showing human figures and animals. This was one of at least three small imported oriental vases discarded, in 1908, after the death of Mary Everett, along with old and worn crockery....
Cologne Bottle

Cologne Bottle

Clear glass Parisian perfume bottle, which contained Cologne. Embossed ‘Rue de la Cloche/ No. 4777A, Cologne’. Two were discovered among the rubbish discarded after the death of Mary Everett in 1908 (including a number of perfume and medicine bottles)....
Souvenir Cup

Souvenir Cup

Transfer-printed cup, with pink, blue and gold colouring, showing the Clarkson Monument and General Post Office, Wisbech. Chipped but intact when discarded in Essex.
Dutch Gin Bottle

Dutch Gin Bottle

Dark olive-green glass Dutch gin bottle (typical design). These were packed into cases and imported. Excavated amid rubbish from the 1880s at Great Wakering. Discarded in London, dumped in Essex.
Hindu Brooch

Hindu Brooch

Copper alloy gilt brooch, showing Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta. The pin is missing. Victorian London had a small Hindu population.
Rouge Holder

Rouge Holder

Ceramic disc, black transfer on white, bearing the name of the French perfumier Maison Dorin. This disc formed a hard base on which rouge and powder were compressed. Once the make-up had been used up, it was discarded. Made in Paris and shipped to England, it was sold...
Clotted Cream Pot

Clotted Cream Pot

Part of a cylindrical white ceramic pot with a purple transfer. The most common sort is printed ‘Pure/ Clotted Cream/ From/ Devonshi[re]/ [D]aily’. (The ‘re’ of Devonshire and most of ‘Daily’ are visible on this fragment.) Others...