Medieval Storage and Serving Vessels
What would Fionnghuala the Volatile have served mead in during the late medieval and early renaissance period?
When paneling beverages with the East Kingdom Brewers Guild, one is awarded extra points for presenting their work in a period appropriate container.
In order to be as accurate as possible, I began research into different types of storage and serving vessels.
Glass Bottles
I was unable to find any documentation of glass bottles being used in period in Europe.
As far as I can tell, they came into use just after SCA period.
The Earliest example I was able to find is a wine bottle found in the remains of the Salutation Tavern in Oxford, England.
This bottle can be dated between 1647 and 1670.
I found many examples of extant onion bottles, which were in use from the 1680s through the 1720s.
Examples of Onion bottles have been found in archeological sites in both England and the United States. (Dungworth, 2012)
This is an example of an English Onion bottle. It belonged to Sir Richard Grosvenor (1689-1732) of Eaton Hall Eccleston, Chester.
He was a member of parliament and became mayor of Chester in 1715. This bottle was recovered from a wreck in the River Dee.
The archeological evidence I was able to find suggests that in period, wine was stored in barrels, and served in
pottery pitchers or jugs.
Barrels
Barrels were made of wood, and came in specific sizes, however, the sizes did vary depending on what would be stored in them.
The tun is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine, beer, oil, or honey.
Typically a large vat or vessel, most often holding 252 wine gallons, but occasionally other sizes (e.g. 256, 240 and 208 gallons) were also used.
In one example from 1507, a tun is defined as 240 gallons.
"He that ys a gawner owght to understonde there ys in a tunne lx systerns and every systern ys iiii galons be yt wyne or oylle."
"He that is a gauger ought to understand that there is in a tunne 60 sesters, and every sester is 4 gallons, be it wine or oil."
— Untitled manuscript, consisting of a list of various customs duties, dated 15 July 1507
Other sized barrels such as the butt, hogshead, and rundlet existed.
The image below shows sizing for wine barrels.
However, the exact measures varied throughout the period. (Zupco, 1985)
Pottery Pitchers and Jugs
Pottery pitchers and jugs were used in period to store and serve smaller amounts of wine, beer and mead.
Many examples of period jugs and pitchers have been found in archeological digs throughout Europe.
Often, examples of this pottery can be found on display in museums.
Here are some period examples.
English Pottery
English Pottery 1150-1300
Glazed Medieval Jug
This is an example of York glazed ware. It was made and sold in York, England between 1150 and 1250.
Ashampsteadware
This rounded jug is from the 13th century. It was produced in Ashampstead, Berkshire.
It was used for decanting and serving liquids.
This is another example of Ashampsteadware from the same time period.
This vessel was used for storage of liquids.
Brill or Boarstallware
This jug was used for storage of liquids. It was produced in or near Buckinhamshire between 1100 and 1250.
It was found at an archeological site in Oxford. It is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum.
Balluster Jug
Balluster jugs were used to decant liquids.
This one was produced in Buckinghamshire between the late 12th and early 13th century.
It is another example of Brill or Boarstallware.
More examples of baluster jugs:
The baluster jug style was produced from the 12th century through the 15th century.
Early Medieval Oxfordware
This pear shaped jug was produced in the region to the northwest or west of Oxford in the 12th-early 13th century.
It was used to store liquids.
13th-14th Century English Pottery
English pottery produced in the 13th and 14th centuries was similar in form to early pottery, but highly decorated.
Jugs were used for decanting wine or ale.
The wide variety of jugs were often well decorated and many displayed a good sense of spatial design.
Three dimensional applied decoration was found on many items from this period.
White slip was sometimes found to cover the entire vessel and then concealed with green or mottled green glaze.
These colors gradually became more evident than the clear glazes associated with the Early medieval period.
Here are some examples of 13th century Brill or Boarstallware:
Balluster Jugs:
Conical or Pear Shaped Jugs:
Rounded or Shouldered Jugs:
Other Jugs from this period:
English pottery 1350-1500:
Jugs were used for storage and as decanters, and probably as drinking vessels.
Applied decoration was less popular than in the previous period.
Well-glazed mugs were new innovations as were cisterns with bung holes for decanting the liquid contents.
Balluster type, conical, rounded, and shoulder jugs were produced during this period.
Examples of Brill or Boarstallware from 1350-1500:
Examples of Other English Pottery from the period:
French Pottery
Rouen Ware Jugs
Made in Rouen, Normandy between 1170 and 1300.
These jugs were often decorated with bands or pellets of clay.
Beige, cream, and brown paints were used to paint stripes and other patterns.
Saintonge Ware Jug
This colorful jug was made between 1275 and 1300 near Saintes, the capital of the Saintonge region in southwest France.
Other jugs from the same time and place feature images of plants or have abstract designs.
Some unusual examples even include three-dimensional human figures.
More examples of Saintonge pitchers:
German Pottery:
Rhenish Stoneware:
This baluster jug and drinking cup were produced in Siegburg, Rhineland in the 1500s.
They are found throughout Northern Europe. They are similar in design to those produced in England.
Stoneware, a specialty of medieval German potters, is a hard, nonporous ceramic.
As it is both strong and impervious to liquids, it was ideally suited for domestic purposes.
Bartmann Jug:
A Bartmann jug (from German Bartmann, "bearded man"), also called a Bellarmine jug,
is a type of decorated salt-glazed stoneware that was manufactured in Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries,
especially in the Cologne region in what is today western Germany.
The signature decorative detail was a bearded facemask appearing on the lower neck of the vessel.
They were made as jugs, bottles and pitchers in various sizes and for a multitude of uses,
including storage of food or drink, decanting wine and transporting goods.
This jug was made in Cologne around 1540.
A wide-mouthed stoneware vessel of this type would have been known to its German maker as a Krug,
a word that was applied to general-purpose mugs or jugs without any kind of pinched pouring lip.
In the 16th century, stoneware vessels designed specifically for pouring liquids had tall spouts,
like a modern coffee pot. It is therefore safe to assume that this particular pot was used for drinking beer.
Bartmann Jug:
More examples of Bartmann Jugs:
Works Cited
Kenneth James Barton (1965) Medieval Pottery at Rouen, Archaeological Journal,
122:1, 73-85, DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1965.11077363
Dungworth, David. (2012). Dungworth, D 2012 ‘Three and a half centuries of bottle manufacture’.
Industrial Archaeology Review 34, 36–49. Industrial Archaeology Review. 34. 36-49
Zupko, Ronald E. (1985). "A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century, Volume 168".
Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. 168. ISBN 9780871691682. Quoting Gras (1918), p. 706
Online sources and Photos
