Description (Labels & Markings)
Handwritten label, in von Hügel's hand, affixed to object reads: 'Barge Yard'.
Event Date
Author: Sophie Wardle

Description (Labels & Markings)
Handwritten label, in von Hügel's hand, affixed to object reads: 'A83.C.A.M.488. / Small vase / Barge Yard / Cambridge / C.A.S.1883.'
Event Date
Author: Sophie Wardle

Description (Physical description)
Small vase, light red with partial green glaze
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
CAS Register for 1883.487 and 1883.488 reads: 'Barge Yard, Cambridge'. This record read: 'Barge Yard, Cambridge' [sic - London?], but both places now in place field.
Event Date 14/10/2004
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
This vessel matches the description of mercury jars given in A Guide to the Classification of Medieval Ceramic Forms (Medieval Pottery Research Group, 1998; see 10.19). In that publication, the author notes that the 'interpretation as containers for mercury is supported by documentary evidence and residue analysis'.
Event Date 27/9/2023
Author: Sophie Wardle

Description (Physical description)
Small mercury jar with remnants of green glaze. The vessel is of red fabric and features an everted rim, narrow neck, bulbous body, and pedestal base. It has the thick walls and distinctive shape of a mercury jar. Chips to the rim and part of base missing.
Event Date 27/9/2023
Author: Sophie Wardle

Context (Amendments / updates)
The object's Accession Register entry states that its 'Provenance' was 'Barge Yard Cambridge', as does an historic label affixed directly to the object. When the retrospective catalogue card for 1883.488 was created at an unknown date, Barge Yard was originally written as located in 'Cambridge' but was later struck through and 'London' written instead. It is not clear why or when it was decided that the Barge Yard where this object was found was the one in London; it is possible there was also a Barge Yard in Cambridge, and the contemporaneous labels and Accession Register identified it as such. However, given the uncertainty, the Place field contains both location options.


Event Date 28/9/2023
Author: Sophie Wardle