Brickware Objects of Low Countries Origin in the Collections of Hull Museums

Five brickware objects in the collectionsof Kingston upon Hull City Museums and Galleries have been identified as being of Low Countries origin; these are the first examples known to the authors of a class of brickware objects, dated conventionally from the 13th to the early 16th centuries (with a floruit in the 14th and 15th centuries), to be recognised in Britain. Four of the Hull examples appear to be fragments of candlesticks, whilst the fifth is a spit-support; however, a wider range of contemporary objects was produced by the same brick- or tile-makers. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to these finds, and to place them in their wider European context. Such finds are now known from a wide area of North-Western Europe, stretching from Scandinavia to Northern France; the Hull finds are unlikely to be the only British examples in existence, and the publication of this paper may help other researchers to recognise further examples of such brickware objects, particularly in the ports and settlements adjoining the eastern coast of Britain.