When digging over the far end of the garden at the new flat, at the end of last year, I found this piece of sculpture. At first I thought it was concrete but it doesn’t look quite right as it has some recurring inclusions, and looks as if it MAY be a kind of white oolitic stone. Therefore, just in case – and being an archaeologist who would not want to chuck something away (or recycle it) without - I’m checking it out. I don’t know about any archaeology in this area of London – we are new here. The place it was found is out towards Epping Forest in Londons Walthamstow area, London E17 – three properties beyond the railway cutting, near Palmerston Road. The 1840’s map of the area shows only fields. This house was built about 1880s and not a lot has been done except that the top half of the house (inside) is now converted to a separate flat. The figure and its frame indicate they were meant to be seen only from the front and the sculpture would have been set in a niche – or something like that. There’s cross-cut scoring (or casting?) on the back to hold it in mortar (? See photo). Please ignore the green paint: my partner splashed it while painting the back fences while I had the sculpture out drying after a gentle clean; I was NOT impressed about that as it detracts from the actual appearance of the sculpture – which is quite graceful! The figure appears to be a religious or classical one, holding a bird (?) in its right hand, while the left hand is missing but may have remnants below it of something it was holding. In the straight-cut (original) section below its waist is a metal pin (?) to hold this fragment to another which would have been below. I think I may – in the last few days – have dug up another fragment of this sculpture in the same area of the garden as I found the first, but I haven’t cleaned it yet and it looks more worn. I have found a piece of red-painted plaster on a very, very hard yellow-pink mortar. The latter may have nothing to do with the sculpture but I’m hanging on to it to have that checked out too. Since the sculpture turned up, any bit of concrete-looking or stone-like debris is being retained until I gently clean and examine them – and get around to asking a specialist/specialists about them if they look unusual. Anyone know what it was meant for, who the figure it is meant to represent, and its date? If you think the sculpture is late, I’d still be interested in any details or comments you might make. If the sculpture IS of a religious figure, I’m not sure why it was here in this area.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 14:39:28 +0000
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