Form, Fabric and Function: Ceramic Choices at Clapham’s Coffeehouse, Cambridge

This paper considers vessels related to the consumption of hot beverages and alcoholic drinks which form part of an assemblage of over 500 items from Clapham’s Coffeehouse, Cambridge, discarded c 1775-80. Although the assemblage has been published in detail elsewhere, there are aspects of form, fabric and decoration that have not been considered. In particular, it is proposed that traditional systems of archaeological classification, such as fabric, should be supplemented by others, which may better approximate to how vessels were perceived in the past and can perhaps lead to new insights. Two of these, explored here, are the distinctions between earth- and white-toned vessels and between ‘Oriental’ blue painted and plainer vessels.