sufficiently thick so that it could be sjroiincl and 

 polished on both sides. This glass was used primarily 

 for mirrors. Whereas the English continued through- 

 out the 18th century to improve their crown glass, 

 the French and Germans devoted their researches to 

 making finer broad glass, which was known as German 

 glass or sheet glass. 



The fragments from Rosewell vary considerably in 

 thickness and would seem to be predominantly of 

 crown tvpe. There are, howev'er, a small nimiber of 

 thicker pieces that can be identified as plate. Biu 

 the most important fragments arc molded with 

 raised diamond and lozenge patterns, and are of a 

 type for which no records have been foimd and which 

 no glass historian has yet been able to identify. The 

 glass varies in thickness, is a pale straw in color, and 

 presumably was made initially in the broad glass 

 manner and then rolled and impres.sed into a mold. 

 The purpose of the glass is uncertain, for it is only 

 semitransparent and is reminiscent of the molded and 

 frosted panes used in bathroom windows and the like 

 in the 19th century and in the early years of the 

 present century. However, it is possilile that it was 

 used in a decorative manner, for sunlight striking the 

 raised patterns causes them to sparkle and glow. It 

 is conceivable that such glass was used in one or both 

 of the great stairhall windows on the east and west 

 sides of the mansion. 



The only dating evidence yet found for glass of this 

 type was provided by fragments found in a trash 

 pit excavated by the writer on property owned by 

 Messrs. Price Waterhouse & Co. in Frederick's Place 

 and Old Jewry in the City of London. The pit, con- 

 taining a quantity of tin-glazed wall tiles and clay 

 tobacco pipes, was considered to have been filled in 

 the period between about 1725 and 1750.^' Also, a 

 fragment of molded glass, purple in color, was picked 

 up on the site of an early 17th-century glasshouse at 

 Sydney Wood in Surrey, England, but there is no 

 proof, or even likelihood, that the piece is of that date. 

 Nevertheless, on the Old Jewry evidence it may be 

 suggested that the molded glass found in the Rosewell 

 pit was installed when the mansion was under con- 

 struction in the second quarter of the 18th century 

 and that the recovered fragments were removed 

 during repairs to the house in the 1760"s or early 

 1770's. 



'"' Contfnts of this pit arc in the rollcction of Guild liall 

 Museum, London. 



In conclusi(jn, notice should be taken of a small 

 fragment of conventional window glass (fig. 9) on 

 which had been scratched an inscription, most of 

 which is missing. Beneath a line of which nothing 

 can be made are the letters "orn A." Four letters 

 hardly make either sense or a sentence, but it is re- 

 called that John Page was [b]orn A[pril] 1744. 



Conclusions 



The preceding summaries of the hisiorv of Rose- 

 well, its architecture, the methods of excavation, and 

 of the most significant finds appear to support the 

 following conclusions: 



( I ) The pit may liavc been dug to obtain clay required 

 for brickmaking. 



(2) The digging and filling of the pit were probably no 



more than a winter apart. 



(3) The filling was thrown into the pit sometime between 



about 1763 and 1772, with the latter as the most 

 probable date. 



(4) The finds include relics of repairs or alterations to the 



mansion as well as domestic trash thrown away by 

 the Page family. 



(5) The finds are to be associated with John Page and his 



family and not with Mann Page II, who had moved to 

 Mannsfield near Fredericksburg in the mid-iyBo's. 



(6) Rosewell possessed a blacksmith's shop as well as the 



120-foot brick stable described in the 1802 insurance 

 policy, and both were situated to the west of the house. 



Illustrations 



The objects illustrated in figures 10-38 are repre- 

 sentative of the principal artifact types found in the 

 Rosewell excavations. They do not, by any means, 

 show all the finds that were recovered. 



LOCATIONS 



The presence of a capital letter and arable numeral 

 after the description of each stratified find indicates 

 the area and stratum from which the item comes. 

 Where two or more sets of letters and figures occur, 

 fragments of the object were found scattered over the 

 areas and through the strata listed. Where more than 

 one fragment was recovered from a single location, 

 no additional letter or figure is included. For the 

 identification of areas and strata see figures 3 and 4, 

 respectively. 



178 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .A.ND TECHNOLOGY 



