Potential Mutant Boy Cameos

Monday was the first time I’ve tried properly mudlarking in the dark. Sunset is so early now that it’s dark by the time I leave work. I took torches and headed at low tide to a place I’d been quite a few times before. Looking for things felt more difficult, but it felt safe enough, particularly as there were two people mudlarking nearby.

Finds:

1. Two Express Dairies fragments - a piece with EDC and a piece with a part of an aster flower.

2. A sherd that says “hot” and has a crown. Perhaps from a hotel?

3. A Gent & Son sherd.

On eBay, you can purchase Gent & Son receipts and on the receipts it says “G.L. Gent & Son” - China, glass & earthenware manufacturers’ agents. The receipts are from 1936 and mention show rooms & office at 4 & 5 Holborn Circus, and warehouses at 3,4 & 5 Bleeding Heart Yard, Charles Street, Hatton Garden. eBay listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167399050328

4. A large piece of Sampson Bridgwood pottery. Lifelong ironstone.



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Finds included:

1. The remains of an Ed. Pinaud bottle

A lot of the items I find on the Thames foreshore were made in London or Stoke-on-Trent, but not this one, as it’s from Paris!

Ed. Pinaud was founded in 1830 in Paris and they made products such as perfumes and hair tonics.

This bottle is likely to be from the late 1800s or early 1900s, and perhaps it contained perfume.

Examples of an Ed. Pinaud bottle on EBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/376464528873



2. An OXO sherd.

This was possibly part of an OXO cup from around the 1920s.

Example of a similar OXO cup on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157338619683

3. A Crescent Geo Jones & Son sherd

I’ve found one of these before, but this time I saw a piece with a pattern that a fellow mudlark found. I think it was the same pattern as in the bottom left here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/squirmelia/54822210624/in/dateposted/

George Jones & Sons were Stoke potters, in operation from 1873 - 1957.

4. Talbot sherd - I’ll post separately about this one.

5. Johnson sherd.

This is likely from Johnson Bros, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, who were in operation from 1883. I like the pictures on the potteries page of the toilets the Johnson Bros created!

6. Black and orange glass handle, gifted to me by a fellow mudlark.

7. Hotel sherd. Not identified where this one is from.

8. GPO Refreshment branch, gifted to me by a fellow mudlark. This one is different to the one I found before, as I think it might have said “GPO Refreshment Branch East”, where as my previous one said GPO West. The GPO East building was the one across the road from my old office.

9. More pieces of an Express Dairies aster flower design.

10. Ridgway sherd.

11. Bits of bottles - one says “ER” on the bottom, another says “stre”



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

The foreshore was covered in silt. I considered climbing over the gate outside the National Theatre but the steps looked slippery so I continued to Gabriel’s Wharf and down to Ernie’s Beach. Even there it was muddy so I walked along the sand in the other direction before heading down underneath the wooden structure and then close to the river. I guess the boats hadn't started running until after the tide had gone out a way and so the silt hadn't been washed away.

It was cold that morning, winter really feeling like it had arrived already, and it was only about 4 degrees when I left my house.

Some finds:

A few pottery sherds from Express Dairies (the one saying EDCL and the one with the blue aster flower), perhaps from an Express Dairies cafe. I found there was a cafe at 102 Waterloo Road which was apparently a popular meeting place for gay men in the 1920s.

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A tiger's eye bead. So pretty!

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A pipe made by E. Spaull. The address on it is 67 Grange Walk, Bermondsey, which shows it was made between 1907 and 1942 by Mrs Elizabeth Spaull & Co.

E. Spaull made clay pipes from 1880 to 1942 and was one of the last companies still making clay pipes in the twentieth century.

Apparently there is still a sign for the company at 67 Grange Walk in Bermondsey, so I will go and look for it sometime!

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A piece of glass from an A.1. Sauce bottle.

A.1. Sauce is a type of brown sauce and was likely manufactured in Vauxhall.

Apparently it was still being produced in England in 2020 for export to Asia, so might still be. There are also versions of A.1. Sauce available in the US and Canada.

The bottle would have looked originally like this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303136241835

It was advertised like this, as a royal relish. “Brand, this sauce is A.1.”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.1._Sauce#/media/File%3AA1_ad_1906.jpg
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A piece of glass that says “Pimlico”. I've identified this as part of a bottle made by the Clayton Brothers. They were based in Pimlico. The bottle may have contained lemonade and was probably similar to this one at the London Museum: https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-497735/bottle-lemonade-bottle/

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Another piece of uranium glass, but not glowing as much, so perhaps it just has a uranium glaze.

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A piece of a torpedo bottle, with the distinctive shape.

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A sherd that says “Skey Tamworth.” This would have been from the Wilnecote Works which were founded in 1860 by George Skey & Co. The colour of the sherd makes it look like it could have been from a stoneware flagon.

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The glass remains of what looks like it could have been a sugar or salt shaker.
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I haven't been able to identify:
The sherd that says “101 Lea” - Leather Lane? Leadenhall Street?
The sherd that looks like it says “CEN”
The sherd that looks like it might have said “Cotton” - perhaps some kind of pot from a chemist?
A piece of glass that says “tary” on it.

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A person with a bicycle appeared, also mudlarking, and then two litter pickers and a dog.

I didn't stay too long as I was getting too cold and there was a Tube Walk later in the day, but I found some interesting things.





(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)