Notes on Tin- Described Articles in the Stourhead Collection. 233 



A water-colour drawing' by Crocker, purchased at the Stourhead 

 sale, has lately reached me ; it contains a drawing of a small urn 

 and of a hone pin. On this drawing are the words, in Sir R. C. 

 Hoare's handwriting, " Stoke Group, No. 11.'^ We are thus 

 enabled to identify the urn, which is still in the Museum, but the 

 history of which was unknown, as it had no label or number at- 

 tached to it. [The engraving is taken from this drawing.] The 

 vase, though evidently hand-made, and imperfectly burnt, is of bold 

 design, aiKi handsomely ornamented. Like many of the smatl 

 highly-decorated vases, which have been called "incense cups," ^ 

 pigment cups," &c,, &c., this vessel is perforated, as may be seen 

 in the engraving, with two distinct holes, most probably for the 

 purpose of suspension. It is obvious that such vessels could not 

 have been used for containing fluids.. 



Bone Pin, from Winterboume Stoke Down. 



The bone pin was lost before the collection reached the County 

 Museum. The above cut, copied from Crocker^s drawing, shows 

 the peculiarity of form. It may be remarked that it could not 

 have been bent into this shape, but it is difficult to understand from 

 what kind of bone a pin with so sharp a curve could have been cut. 



^ A non-poetical friend suggests ttat it is more probable that they were used 

 for holding the material for obtaining fire — in fact that they were " primitive 

 tinder-boxes." 



