Might be in the wrong place...

[badkittystt]

I have a piece that I absolutely cannot identify. I think it's ceramic, but the mystery haunts me! My theories are... 1) Thousand year old greek pottery 2) broken pottery from shipwreck 3) broken cup from 21st century wedding purchased at pottery barn

Help!

(So apparently my computer hates me and won't open Photoshop to edit my images so for now I am linking to my thread on another forum where I got some help but nothing that lead anywhere.)

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/304197-unidentified-mystery-shard.html sorry

 

[Plumbata]

Hello there,

The interesting shard you found is likely from a stoneware Dutch Gin bottle, similar in form to the following:

These kinds of bottles were made and used elsewhere as well (Germany, Belgium, etc.), and often contained other spirits or mineral waters for export. They seem to have largely fallen out of favor by the 1910s, though even nowadays one can find products packaged in similar bottles.

I'd guess that your shard is from the last quarter of the 19th century, and was probably dumped near or directly into the ocean after the contents were drained. It could be from a shipwreck, but I'd wager that the vast majority of shards found on beaches came from old refuse dumps. Us bottle diggers uncover such item pretty regularly.

 

[badkittystt]

Thank you! That is a beautiful answer mostly because it's an answer, but also because of something my boyfriend found a few weeks ago pictured below... With that information I might be able to find some company names and whatnot. Do you have any information on cleaning this type of bottle? As you can see we haven't done much to the whole one.

 

[badkittystt]

I finally got my Photoshop to cooperate so here is a single picture of the shard, if you follow the link to the other forum there are more images but for some reason I can't find them on my computer.

I think it's very possible it could be a piece of one of the gin bottles, is anyone familiar with gin companies from that time period? I'm so excited to finally have an intelligent answer!

 

[cyberdigger]

The writing on your shard tells me ..as Plumbata suggested, it's probably Dutch, and my guess is it was a gin bottle like the ones pictured above..
This one your B/F found is kinda cool the way it is.. []

 

[epackage]

I believe it might be

Vandyk Jacob​

_______ten & Zonen​

 

[AntiqueMeds]

Not Greek letters so its not 1000 year old greek item.

 

[Plumbata]

If you do plan on cleaning the carbonate encrustations off the intact piece (nice find btw!) I would suggest diluted Hydrochloric (Muriatic) acid, which is usually easily available at hardware stores (the stuff is something like 6 molar so it is very strong, dilute 1 part in 10 or more of water).

Once a plastic or nonreactive vessel (aluminum is reactive, and stainless steel will get stained, lol) is procured I'd place it in upside down and secure it, keeping the base just above the solution level. Reason being is that the bases of many stoneware items are often not glazed, so the porous pottery will absorb water (plus acid) and cause problems.

Back in my younger and more foolish days I made a big nasty round "stain" (chemical burn?) on my parent's baby grand piano by placing an acid-treated jug on it... []

Regardless, after dissolving the encrustation to your liking I would suggest rinsing it off and soaking it in a few changes of fresh water over several days, maybe add some baking soda to be sure you neutralize the lingering HCl. I bet it would turn out to be a lovely piece, and may reveal an interesting makers mark stamp which would be good fun to research.

Good luck! []

 

[badkittystt]

Thank you so much for this info Plumbata! We were afraid to put it in muriatic acid because neither of us know much about ceramics but that is how we clean everything else. I agree that it looks pretty cool the way it is but what if we clean it off and it says vandyke! hahaha that would be pretty crazy.

Kitty

ORIGINAL: Plumbata

If you do plan on cleaning the carbonate encrustations off the intact piece (nice find btw!) I would suggest diluted Hydrochloric (Muriatic) acid, which is usually easily available at hardware stores (the stuff is something like 6 molar so it is very strong, dilute 1 part in 10 or more of water).

Once a plastic or nonreactive vessel (aluminum is reactive, and stainless steel will get stained, lol) is procured I'd place it in upside down and secure it, keeping the base just above the solution level. Reason being is that the bases of many stoneware items are often not glazed, so the porous pottery will absorb water (plus acid) and cause problems.

Back in my younger and more foolish days I made a big nasty round "stain" (chemical burn?) on my parent's baby grand piano by placing an acid-treated jug on it... []

Regardless, after dissolving the encrustation to your liking I would suggest rinsing it off and soaking it in a few changes of fresh water over several days, maybe add some baking soda to be sure you neutralize the lingering HCl. I bet it would turn out to be a lovely piece, and may reveal an interesting makers mark stamp which would be good fun to research.

Good luck! []