Pot Lid and Pot Reunited After 100 Years...

[Staunton Dan]

Nothing great here but I reunited a pot lid and its pot after over 100 years. I found the 2" high pot a little over a week ago and the lid showed up a couple of days ago - a perfect match.

 

[TROG]

Hi Dan,

Still a nice find as I have only found 1 lid and base as a match in 35 years digging and this is with probably over 100 lids (mainly plain ) and double of bases.

David

 

[Staunton Dan]

Thanks David. That is the 2nd matched top and bottom I have found, both plain. The 1st was found together in an 1840s era privy. I also got some great pontiled bottles from that privy. I remember also finding a small, maybe 6" long, brass cannon in there too. Here's a pic of the other lid and pot.

 

[Staunton Dan]

I just found a pic of the small cannon. I wish that I still had it as it was pretty unique.

 

[TROG]

Hi Dan,

Certainly a nice little cannon and an unusual item to dig.The 2nd lid photo is certainly from the age you mentioned as the older lids tend to have a flat surface where as later ones normally have a slightly domed top but is not always the case.I would think this 1840,s lid was an unlucky find for you as lids from this period would normally be transferred.

David

 

[andy g]

Yes, a classic 1840s-50s lid & pot in the second set of photos. I do have a different view than David based upon my experience from privy digging on the East Coast of the United States, which is primarily focused on pits between 1830 and 1870, in that:
[ul][*]it is not terribly unusual to find matching lids and pots from that time period in outhouse pits;
[*]one is much more likely to find plain lids in that time period (perhaps as many as 10 or 15 plain ones for every transfer printed lid). [/ul]In fact, every year I give away or sell at least three dozen matched plain pairs AND still have a full box of tops & lids in my garage. However, I rarely dig more than a handful of transfer print lids on an average annual basis & have never dug more than 10 in one year (and 5 of those came out of one hole). Perhaps others have a different experience but the only deviation for me has been that one finds less pairs (plain or with transfer) when dump digging as opposed to privy digging.

andy g

 

[TROG]

Hi Andy,

My post would actually refer to dump digging as have never found a pot lid here in Australia in an old toilet hole and my finds have come from dumps. In the early dumps from 1850 through to say 1890 all lids are scarce but 90% would be transferred from this age but from 1890,s would drop to around 20% by 1915 and then into the 1920,s if you found a lid it would nearly always be plain.

David

 

[andy g]

I was starting to write a digging article for the club newsletter & came across this picture which, of course, reminded me of this post. So ... here is a picture of artifacts as they were pulled out of this privy from a construction site in Brooklyn, NY and you can see that we found at least 8 sets of pot lid & base in this hole. More than usual but not terribly unusual.

 

[TROG]

Hi Andy,

Looks like this was a good hole for finds. Just wonder whether the user had a medical problem with all those pots and lids and possibly ointment for piles or sexually transmitted disease as they look a bit small for shaving creams etc.