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A glass bowl of Dark Age date and some medieval grave-finds from Shaftesbury Abbey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Extract

Towards the end of 1951 the Countess of Shaftesbury presented to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester a brass-bound wooden casket of nineteenth-century neo-Gothic design which contained a glass bowl and several other ancient objects. The casket and its contents had only recently come into Lady Shaftesbury's own possession, but they had been in the possession of the Grosvenor family (to which she belongs) for some time before that.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1954

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References

page 185 note 1 I am greatly indebted to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester for their kindness in permitting me to publish these finds and to the Dean for much help in tracking down information about them. Dr. F. Rademacher (of Bonn) and Mr. W. A. Thorpe, F.S.A., have also helped me with advice and guidance, and I have had the great advantage of consulting Mr. G. E. Chambers, F.S.A., about the history of the abbey and of the modern excavations on the site. The identification of the ‘three coins’ I owe to my colleague Mr. Anthony Thompson and the drawings to Mrs. M. E. Cox.

page 190 note 1 The 1861–2 excavations are described in Wilts. Arch. Mag. vii (1862), 272 ff.Google Scholar , by Kite, Edward, following an article in the same journal, pp. 250 ff.Google Scholar , by Reynolds, J. T. entitled ‘The Ancient History of Shaftesbury’. The latter author's The Ancient History of Shaftesbury (1905)Google Scholar is largely reprinted from this W.A.M. article, with Kite's account of the excavations added in a somewhat revised form. The 1902–4 excavations were described in three special Reports by E. Doran Webb, printed in Shaftesbury by Pinney, T., Excavations on the Site of the Abbey Church … Shaftesbury, Report for 1902 (12 pp.)Google Scholar ; Second Report for 1903 (10 pp.); Third Report for 1904 (8 pp.). The 1930-1 digging is published in a brochure of 24 pp. by the excavator, entitled Report of Excavations on the Site of the Royal Abbey of Shaftesbury A.D. 1930-1 (Crypt House Press, Gloucester and London, no date)Google Scholar . Claridge also published in 1935 a History of Shaftesbury Abbey (25 pp.; Pearson & Son, Shaftesbury, price 6d.).

page 192 note 1 Doran Webb's (in 1903 Report) and Claridge's plans include much more than the chancel, for they uncovered parts of the north and south transepts, nave, and cloisters as well.

page 192 note 2 It is also noteworthy that the subscription list to Doran Webb's dig includes the name of the Duke of Westminster—a fact which might well explain the handing over of the contents of the casket to the Grosvenor family.

page 192 note 1 The main and most readily accessible authorities for western glass of this period (cited hereafter under authors' names and date) are : Arbman, H., 1937: Schweden und das Karolingisches Reich (Stockholm, 1937), pp. 2686Google Scholar ; Chambon, R., and Arbman, H., 1952: ‘Deux fours a verre d'epoque merovingienne a Macquenoise (Belgique)’, Bull. soc. roy. des lettres de Lund, vii, 199232Google Scholar ; Harden, D. B., 1950: ‘Glass Vessels in Anglo-Saxon Britain’, Arch. News Letter, iii, no. 2 (July, 1950), 2127Google Scholar ; Honey, W. B., 1946: Glass (London, 1946), pp. 35 ffGoogle Scholar , 73 ff, 95 ff ; Rademacher, F., 1933: Die deutschen Gläser des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1933)Google Scholar ; id. , 1942: ‘Frankische Gläser aus dem Rheinlande’, Bonner Jahrbücher, cxlvii, pp. 285–344; Thorpe, W. A., 1935: English Glass (London, 1935; 2nded. 1949), pp. 4393Google Scholar ; Winbolt, S. E., 1933: Wealden Glass (Hove, 1933)Google Scholar.

page 192 note 2 Cf. Rademacher, 1942, pp. 335 ff.

page 192 note 3 Cf. Rademacher, 1933, pp. I ff., pl. II; id., 1942, pp. 296 ff., 304 ff, pls. 50-51, 58-63; Harden, 1950, pp. 22 ff, types III b, XI b; Chambon-Arbman, 1952, p. 222, figs. 5 and 7 (the latter = A. Kisa, Glas, p. 913, fig. 390).

page 193 note 1 Cf. Winbolt, 1933, figs, on pp. 68 ff.; Rademacher, 1933, pls. IV f, XIII b, e, XXIII-XXVI; see also Daniels, J. S., Woodchester Glass House (Gloucester, 1950), pls. VI–VIIGoogle Scholar , and Oxoniensia, iii (1938), pl. XII DGoogle Scholar.

page 193 note 2 Cf. Davidson, G. R. in Am. Journ. Arch., xliv (1940), pp. 297ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar , fig.11 (nos. 8 and 50), fig. 13, etc.; id. , Corinth XII, The Minor Objects (Princeton, 1952), pp. 83 ff., 107 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 193 note 3 Cf. Lamm, C. J., Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem nahen Osten (Berlin, 1930), pp. 46 ff., pl. 8Google Scholar showing ribbing made by various methods); id., ‘Les Verres trouves a Suse’, Syria, 1931, pp. 358 ff, pls. LXXV, 3, LXXVII, 6; id. , Glass from Iran (Stockholm, 1935), pp. 10Google Scholar ff., pls. III-IV, XVIII-XXIII.

page 193 note 4 Cf. Rademacher, 1933, p. 3, pi. 11 c, d (from Basel); id., 1942, pp. 311 ff, pl. 63 (from Bonn); Harden, 1950, p. 24, type VIII a, b (40 examples from Faversham alone); Chambon-Arbman, 1952, p. 222, figs. 5 and 7 (Macquenoise and Grötlingbo, Sweden).

page 193 note 5 Cf. Lamm, , Syria, 1931, p. 363Google Scholar , pl. LXXV, 1-3 (Susa, 9th-ioth cent.) ; Davidson, , Corinth XII, p. 121Google Scholar , nos. 803–5, fig. 18.

page 193 note 6 For 6th-8th-cent. examples cf. Rademacher, 1942 pl. 64; Harden, 1950, p. 24, type VIII c: for 9th-10th-cent. examples cf. Arbman, 1937, pp. 48 f., 52, pls. 8–9 (Hopperstad, Vik, Norway and Birka, Sweden).

page 193 note 7 Cf. Rademacher, 1942, pls. 55-57 (7th cent.); ibid., pls. 58-59 (8th cent.); Arbman, 1937, pls. 3-5 (9th-10th cent.).

page 193 note 8 Cf. Rademacher, 1942, pls. 70-71 (7th-8th cent.); Arbman, 1937, p. 60, pl. 11, nos. 3–4 (9th-10th cent.).

page 194 note 1 There is only one other complete specimen from the British Isles, a flasklet from Mullaroe, Co. Sligo, which could be of this date, but there are several groups of fragments from Hamwih (Southampton) and elsewhere. For fuller details see my article ‘Glass vessels in Britain A.D. 400-1000’ in Dark-age Britain; studies presented to E.T.Leeds, forthcoming.

page 194 note 2 Cf. Bradford, C. A., Heart Burial (London, 1933), pp. 41Google Scholar , 52, the earliest firm example cited being that of Henry II (1189): I owe this reference to the kindness of Mr. W. A. Thorpe. At Lesnes Abbey (The Times, 30th July 1952) in recent excavations a heart burial of Roesia of Dover, great grand-daughter of the founder of the abbey, was discovered. The abbey was founded in 1178 and Roesia's burial would date from the 13th century.