OINTMENT POT & LOU

As a teenager in the mid seventies Lou would go biking with friends, often to an area of wasteland in Surrey. The land was being developed as an industrial estate, there were holes in the ground where the footings were to be laid. This is where he had his first find, it began thirty years of collecting pots and bottles. Lou’s wife also goes digging, she collects clay pipes. This is one of Lou’s many Victorian ointment pots. At the time of production they were often advertised with spurious claims about their health benefits, sometimes the only ingredient was animal fat. This particular pot was manufactured in Deritend, a suburb of Birmingham, in the late 1800s. It was dug up by Lou on the outskirts of London in the late 1900s.

18 Sep 2011