Banded Mulberry Mudlarked Sherd Pendant

Historical Information

Type: Banded

Fabric: Earthenware

Date: 1800's

Find Location: Colchester Essex, UK

Extra information:

This pendant is crafted from a fragment of 19th-century British tableware, repurposed into wearable art while preserving its tangible link to the everyday lives of the past. The sherd likely originates from a pearlware or early ironstone plate or shallow bowl, produced between 1830 and 1870—a period when simple yet elegant banded decoration was highly fashionable in British ceramics.

The deep mulberry band and accompanying fine inner line were hand-applied using a turning wheel, a method common in the Staffordshire potteries. The colour-derived from manganese oxide pigments-was a popular choice in this era, often used on plates, bowls, mugs, and serving dishes intended for both domestic and export markets. These wares reflected the growing middle-class demand for durable yet aesthetically pleasing ceramics during the Industrial Revolution.

The glaze is delicately crazed, a network of fine surface cracks that forms naturally over time, adding texture and evidence of age. The curve of the fragment suggests it once graced the rim of a functional household item-perhaps part of a breakfast or dinner service used daily over many decades.