VESSEL

Hollow cast copper alloy tube with a diagonal flat surface at one end. 28mm in diameter at the hollow end, and 21mm in diameter at the sealed end. The rim is 2mm thick.

The flat surface is the remains of the body (rim area) of the vessel which still adheres to the end of the hollow handle.

This object has been looked at by Naomi Payne, Roderick Butler and Christopher Green who agree that it is a handle from a post-medieval copper alloy cooking vessel, probably a pan or skillet. The date given by Butler is 1450-1600 AD, stating that solid cast handles become popular in the 17th century, and so this type is unlikely to continue in use beyond this date.

Butler and Green comment:

"We think this is almost certainly a socket to accommodate a wooden handle. It is probably the whole of such a socket with, at one end, a piece of the body from which it extended. The angle between the socket and the body is quite sharp. The body remnant appears to be surrounded by fracture, as typically found on broken-out legs and lugs. At the other end of the socket, the damage might indicate where there was some sort of retaining pin.

We are not aware of any English bronze cooking vessels cast with this type of socketed wooden handle, but they are recorded in NW Europe (see attached image from GEBRAUCHSGERAT TYPEN Thomas Dexel Klinkhardt & Biermann 1981) and we should not rule out the possibility that some may have been cast in England.

A socket-&-wood handle has the distinct advantage of affording insulation from excessive heat. However it would not be ideal for a vessel left regularly in the embers of a fire on an open hearth, but it might be used with a more contained charcoal heat-source".

A similar example can be seen on this database at WILT-17F491, and also "Some Recent Finds From East Surrey", D. Williams in Surrey Archaeological Collections, vol 83, Fig 15, p183, no.141.