File:SOM-849CA3, Post-Medieval sileverware hoard (FindID 237552).jpg

English: Seventeenth century silverware hoard: Treasure case 2008 T645.

Curator's report: The hoard comprises six silver items: four slip top spoons, a goblet and a bell salt, and the incomplete earthenware vessel in which the silver was concealed. An identical owner's mark can be seen on each piece of silverware. This comprises a G and an A surmounted by a C, all formed from numerous pecked dots.

Spoons
All four of the silver slip top spoons were manufactured in London. The crowned facing leopard's head (for London) is stamped just inside each fig-shaped bowl, adjacent to the stem, orientated with the crown beside the stem. On the back of each stem, beside the bowl, there are two marks: the maker's stamp and the lion passant. The date letters are located on the back of the stems, close to each terminal.

Three of the spoons are similar in dimensions. They have the same maker's mark (IF within an ornate shield, with two pellets above the initials and a mullet flanked by two pellets below) and hallmark letter ('v' within a square shield, for 1617) and presumably formed part of a purpose-made set. This maker's mark has not been identified with a particular maker, but the same mark features on three spoons with lion sejant terminals which date from 1617-8 and are in the collection of the British Museum (Jackson 1949, p. 114). The angled terminals of two of the three spoons are engraved with the letters MD and the other is plain.

The fourth spoon has a shorter stem and a different year stamp and maker's mark. The year stamp is a 'k' within a square shield, for 1607. The maker's mark is a crescent enclosing an indistinct letter, within a wavy-edged shield. There are a number of spoons of various types with similar makers' marks dating from 1607-8 (Jackson 1949, p. 110). All four spoons are marked with the CGA owner's mark on the back of the bowls, adjacent to the stem.

Goblet
The goblet is in two pieces (the stem has come away from the beaker) and the stem itself has been bent. The beaker is circular and flares slightly from the base to the rim. The baluster-like stem of the goblet has been turned and is decorated with a number of incised circumferential lines. The hallmarks are located on the exterior of the beaker, about 12-15mm from the rim. They comprise (from left to right) the maker's stamp, the crowned leopard's head, the lion passant and the date letter, which is in this case is a 'q' within a square shield, for 1633. The maker's mark features the letters RS with a single mullet above and a large pellet below, all within an ornate shield. This precise mark is not listed in Jackson's 'English Goldsmiths and their Marks' (1949) but there are a number of similar marks, including one which is near identical with the exception of the pellet, which has a heart in its place. This mark is stamped on the foot of a small salver dating from 1635-6 (p. 119). The CGA owner's mark is located on the exterior of the beaker, opposite the hallmarks.

Bell salt
The bell salt comprises four separate pieces, which become progressively larger from top to bottom. The dished interiors of the two lower tiers would have been used to store salt and the perforated sphere at the apex was a pepper castor. The shaker unscrews to allow more pepper to be added. Comparable examples have three spherical feet, which this example lacks.

The lower and middle sections are hallmarked. One the lower section, the hallmarks are located about one third of the way up on the exterior surface. They are (from left to right) the date letter ('s' within a square shield, for 1615), the lion passant, the crowned leopard's head and the maker's mark. The latter two marks are rather indistinct. The maker's mark appears to be an anchor flanked by two letters (DG?) within a shield. A similar mark has been recorded on communion cup and paten sets from St Lawrence, Jewry and St Michael Bassetshaw, both in London (Jackson 1949, p. 117). However these marks are associated with hallmarks dating from 1629-30, so they are not necessarily associated with the same maker. The CGA owner's mark is located on the opposite side to the hallmarks, just below the seat for the middle section.

The central section's hallmarks are less clear again. They are located about half way up on the exterior surface and comprise (from left to right) the maker's stamp, the leopard's head (presumably, although there is some minor damage in this area), the lion passant and the date letter, in this case an 'r', for 1614. The maker's mark is not the same as the mark on the base. It appears to be a monogram consisting of a T superimposed on a W, within an unclear shield. Broadly similar stamps feature on a communion cup from Penmark, Glamorgan, dating from 1602-3 and on a standing cup from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, which dates from 1607-8 (Jackson 1949, pp. 109-10).

The difference in date letters and maker's marks raises the possibility that the lower and central section were not originally made as a set. They do not fit together perfectly, but this may be due to the effects of burial, or having been accidentally dropped at some point. The upper section is stamped with the same maker's mark as the middle section, in the centre of its base. It fits snugly with the central tier and was presumably made to fit it. The upper section consists of a dome surmounted by a sphere that is perforated by eight equally spaced circular holes. It has a ribbed and coned terminal at the apex. The screw thread that holds the two sections together has five twists.

Ceramic vessel
The silverware was discovered within an internally glazed earthenware jar. David Dawson has examined the pot and provided the following report.

The pottery vessel in which the hoard was found is fragmentary. Twenty-four sherds were recovered which represent approximately one half of the original pot. The whole of the base is represented although there appears to be an old break on one side. There is only one rim sherd and its edges also appear to be old breaks.

The form is a plain jar (MPRG type 4; Brown 1998). The fabric is a hard-fired red earthenware that has been reduced and mostly reoxidised. The internal green glaze is a good glossy lead-glaze coloured dark green from the reduced fabric underneath. It has all the characteristics of the ware found associated with kiln debris in the construction of the Nether Stowey by-pass in 1968 (Coleman-Smith & Pearson 1970). This type of ware has been found stratified in Bristol in excavations at St. Nicholas' Almshouses and Narrow Quay in deposits dated to the mid-17^th and late 16^th/early 17^th centuries respectively (Barton 1964, Good 1987).

Deposition

The hoard is most likely to have been hidden for safekeeping during the English Civil War. At this time, Stowey Court, which is located about 800m from the findspot, was used as a royalist garrison. According to a note in the earliest surviving Nether Stowey parish register, "it is supposed that the register books before this were burnt in the great house [i.e. Stowey Court] in this parish in the time of the great rebellion, the parishioners having removed their best goods & things of value into it, it being made a garrison by the king's forces." (Somerset Record Office reference D/P/n.sty 2/1/1). This indicates there was considerable upheaval and uncertainty in the area at the time and that locals were concerned for the safety of their more valuable possessions.

The CGA owner's mark may possibly relate to the Civil War era owner of Stowey Court, Angel Grey, and his first wife Catherine, although the initials are not in the expected arrangement and the occurrence of these three letters may be coincident. Mr Grey was born in c. 1603 and purchased the lordship at Stowey in 1627. He was still living in Nether Stowey in the 1660s, as he signed a document as Justice of the Peace in 1664 and was entered in the poll tax for the parish in March of 1666/7 (pers. comm. Mary Siraut, Victoria County History, Somerset) (Somerset Record Office Q/SR 106/32 and DD/WY 34). Grey died in 1670 and was buried at Stamford. The land where the hoard was buried was probably in the ownership of the lord of the manor during the seventeenth century.

The person who concealed the hoard need not have been its owner. It could have been entrusted to a servant to be hidden, or it could have been looted, perhaps by a soldier who was garrisoned at Stowey Court, who subsequently was not in a position to recover the items, or (not being local) could not locate the exact spot where they were hidden. If a soldier had looted the silverware, it is possible that the items had previously belonged to a family in some other part of the country.

References

Barton, K.J., 1964, 'The excavation of a medieval bastion at St. Nicholas's Almshouses, King Street, Bristol', Medieval Archaeol. 8 ,184-212.

Brown et al., 1998, A guide to the classification of Medieval ceramic forms, London: Medieval Pottery Research Group Occasional Paper 1.

Coleman-Smith, R., & Pearson, T., 1970, Excavations at Donyatt and Nether Stowey, Southampton: Donyatt Research Group 1970 Interim Report.

Good, G.L., 1987, 'Excavations at Narrow Quay, Bristol, 1978-9', Post-medieval Archaeol. 21, 25-126.

C. J. Jackson, 1949, English Goldsmiths and their Marks. London: Batsford.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Mary Siraut and to David Dawson for their help during the preparation of this report.

Prepared by Dr Naomi Payne Historic Environment Officer (Archaeology) Somerset County Council