Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology		The Collections:
	PotWeb:	Ceramics online @ the Ashmolean Museum	•	Early Europe & Near East
			•	Classical to Medieval
			•	Europe from 1500
			•	Oriental & Islamic

A Vessel for everyman and his family

Acquiring the vessel
A family might have bought vessels from a market stall, either paying in cash or exchanging products that they had produced themselves. Hawkers (door-to-door salesmen) operated in many areas; fairs and seasonal festivals provided important mechanisms for exchange. Otherwise ceramic vessels may have been purchased directly from the potter at a production centre. In the later medieval period it became possible to buy pots from shops. This variety of acquisition methods generates complex patterns, but some broad trends can be seen when vessels or fragments of pottery sherds from a major production centre are plotted.	Shouldered jug in Mottled Brown ware was probably a regional import
Money boxes were discarded together in Oxford, perhaps representing the old stock from a shop

Dated parallels

A Vessel for ...

Bibliography

© Copyright University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 2000 The Ashmolean Museum retains the copyright of all materials used here and in its Museum Web pages. last updated: jcm/27-jun-2000