late-19th c - 2000
Early modern (British Protectorate/British Cyprus)
Earthenware water-pot, wheel-thrown in whitish-buff body, unglazed, with narrow bottle neck, turned-over rim and two applied handles. The sides of the body are flattened, with incised parallel lines on the shoulders.
This collection of textiles, spinning implements and pottery from Cyprus was assembled by L.H. Dudley Buxton, an anthropologist, during his fieldwork in Cyrpus in 1913 under the auspices of the Archaeological Expedition of the Brtitish Association. Buxton's research was published in 'The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute' , see L.H. Dudley Buxton, 'The Anthropology of Cyprus' (Vol.50, Jan-June1920, pp. 183-235), and in 'Man', the Bulletin of the Royal Anthropological Society, see L.H. Dudley Buxton, 'Notes on Cypriot Textiles' (Vol. 21: Feb 1921, pp. 17-19; March 1921, pp. 40-44; April 1921, pp. 51-55; May 1921, pp. 67-70).
The pottery (Eu1914,1008.1-9) represents three of the four traditional pottery centres: Phini, Lapithos and Famagusta (the fourth is Kornos, see Eu1933,-.4). See E. Papademetriou, 'Cypriot Ethnography Collections in British Museums, Nicosia 2000, no. 111, p. 123, where this is described as a 'water-jug ('koukkoumara'), originally used for carrying water on camels ('kamilarissimi'). Famagusta ware.' This would explain the flattened sides.
An undated note from the vendor, L H Dudley Buxton, on paper with letterhead 'Cyprus Museum, Nicosia' to: 'T A Joyce Esq, Dept British & Medieval Antiquities & Ethnography', reads:
'The contents of this case are Cypriot pottery & 1 spinning wheel. The value of the pottery when purchased was as follows:
Big milk bowl 1/-
Phyne & Famagusta ware 6 c.p.
Lapithos ware 1/-
The spinning wheel when new would cost 3/-
Contents referred to in letter.'
In his article on 'The Anthropology of Cyprus' (see above), Dudley Buxton describes the different types of pottery:
'Attention may be called to three forms of pots still in general use. First, the women make out of a mixture of mud and the dry chaff of the country a very rude form of pot; these things are coarse and so ungainly as rather to deserve the name of mud pies than pots. They are baked in the sun and used for cooking purposes, and may sometimes be of considerablk size when they fulfil the functions of ovens. The second form of pot is plain, rather coarse, red ware, coarse not in relation to the last-named beside which they are graceful. These pots are extremely like the big polished red pots which are so characteristic of the Early Bronze Age in Cyprus. The relation is confirmed by the still surviving breasts which the modern potter daubs on the front of his pot as his predecessor did so long ago. Another type of this pot which is still in common use is the milk bowl, a large pot with a spout that leaves the vessel below the water line and turns upward at a right angle. Additional interest attaches to this form of pot because it is not infrequently stamped with the potter's mark close to the handle, another survival. . . . . The other class of pots to which attention may be drawn is commonly known as Famagusta ware; they are made of a clay which bakes white like the Egyptian gowlah. They are made on a wheel which consists of two round flat pieces of wood, the lower one being about twice the size of the upper one. The two are joined together with a bar which revolves in a simple improvized bearing. Such a form of turntable is common over a widespread area in the Near East. The clay is worked with the hand, but is finally smoothed with a bit of leather before the slip is applied. In form many of the pots are reminiscent of Hellenistic shapes. There is a con- siderable amount of variation between the work of the different villages.'
