Cheapish and Spanish: Meaning and Design on Imported Spanish Pottery

This paper considers the contention that the meaning of pottery is culturally specific and often transmutable. Taking the differing forms and decorative styles of imports of Spanish medieval pottery as an example, it is argued that the pots often had special meanings attached to them in the minds of the Mediterranean potters who originally produced them. This meaning was carried mainly in their specific colour and motifs of decoration and can only be explained by understanding the social setting of pottery production. Once imported into southern England these nuances were then lost on consumers of a different nationality and religion and the pots attained new significance, often said to relate to the reinforcement of social standing.