Ceramic: Medieval Kingston-type ware

Kingston-type ware is a type of Surrey whiteware, one of the principal kinds of pottery used in London and its environs from the middle of the 13th until the 16th century. Various Surrey whitewares were made at a number of sources in Surrey and along the Surrey-Hampshire borders. They have been divided into four main groups based on fabric, methods of manufacture, form or shape and decorative style.

Kingston-type ware is the earliest of the Surrey whitewares found in London and dates to the mid-13th-14th-century. The vessels are similar to pottery excavated from a number of kiln sites in Kingston upon Thames, hence the name Kingston-type ware. During its heyday in the late 13th to mid-14th centuries, the industry provided Londoners with a wide range of practical and decorative tablewares, kitchen pottery and money boxes. This is consistently among the most common ware found archaeologically over about a century.

Fabric

Kingston-type ware was made from white-firing, sandy clay, tempered with rounded quartz sand. All Surrey whiteware clays are typical of the Reading Beds, which outcrop in the Farnham area of Surrey, some way from Kingston, so the raw materials were probably brought to the potters by cart or boat. There is some variation in Kingston-type fabrics, but they can usually be distinguished from other Surrey whitewares under low-power magnification by their abundant well-sorted quartz inclusions.

Forms and styles

All Kingston-type wares are wheel-thrown, apart from a few forms that were slab-built such as dripping dishes and condiments. Jugs are the most common form and were clearly a mainstay of the industry. The pale buff-coloured body lent itself to decoration and the widespread use of a copper-stained green glaze provided a striking colour contrast. A number of different styles can be recognised and have been closely dated by finds excavated along the Thames waterfront.

The highly-decorated style is the earliest of these and uses applied clay strips, bands, pellets and other motifs, along with stamps and polychrome glazing and slips, often in elaborate schemes. It was closely influenced by northern French pottery and its early to mid 13th-century London-type ware copies, and it is possible that the Kingston-type industry was started by potters from London. A notable feature of the elaborate decoration of the 13th century is a distinct group of Kingston-type jugs, including many miniatures, with anthropomorphic or zoomorphic features.

At the end of the 13th century stamped boss decoration was introduced on Kingston-type jugs, made by pushing the vessel wall out from the inside with one or more fingers while pressing a stamped mould on the outside. Many different motifs are known. Pellet decoration involved applying rows of individually formed pellets of clay around the body of the jug to give a 'scale' effect. Many types of baluster jug were made, both decorated and plain; one of the most distinctive of these is the metal copy form, made in direct imitation of contemporary metalware from the late 13th century onwards (see main image above).

By the early 14th century plain jugs were widely made by the Kingston-type potters, undecorated or with incised grooves often the only type of surface embellishment. Large numbers of small rounded jugs and biconical jugs have been found in London in 14th-century contexts and probably represent a new fashion for individual ceramic drinking vessels. At the same time an unusual form of tall, narrow-necked baluster jug was being produced, probably for holding and serving wine.

Apart from jugs, the Kingston-type ware potters also made a wide range of kitchenwares, including jars or cooking pots, pipkins, cauldrons, frying pans and dripping dishes. Tableware included various bowls and dishes, as well as condiment dishes and aquamaniles (to hold water for hand washing). The clay used by the Kingston-type ware potters was also ideal for the high temperatures required for metalworking crucibles.

Production sites

Excavations in 1993 on a site at 70–76 Eden Street revealed the remains of four early 14th-century kilns and substantial quantities of wasters. Other wasters had been found at another whiteware kiln uncovered nearby in the 1960s, and at a mid 14th-century kiln in Union Street, excavated in 1982. A dump of whiteware wasters identical in fabric to Kingston-type ware was also found at Bankside in Southwark. No kiln evidence was found and it is uncertain how they reached this location.

Further reading

A 14th-century pottery site in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. Excavations at 70-76 Eden Street, P Miller & R Stephenson, 1999, MOLA Archaeology Studies Series 1

A dated type-series of London medieval pottery part 4: Surrey whitewares, J Pearce & A Vince, 1988, London Middlesex Archaeological Society Special Paper 10

Main image caption

The main image shows a Kingston-type ware baluster jug, accession number 14562, with bichrome green glaze made in the mid-13th century. The shape imitates metal jugs of the period, but these were very expensive – the ceramic copies were more affordable. The jug was found in Austin Friars in the Cit