y 
Frazer—Description of a “ Shale Chark.” 365 
The perfect state of preservation of this early specimen of earthen- 
ware is worth observing. We can seldom obtain articles of this 
description fabricated in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in our 
city; a few broken fragments are unearthed from time to time when 
the soil is disturbed, but with the exception of tiles used for ecclesias- 
tical buildings, of which some were found when repairing our 
cathedrals—St. Patrick’s and Christ Church—and the “‘ greybeard”’, 
which in former times was employed to hold wine or brandy; and 
even these are far from common: any complete and perfect specimen of 
the earthen vessels which were in daily use by our Dublin citizens 
during the reigns of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth are of exceptional 
occurrence; yet this dish affords us a good illustration of an early art 
manufacture that must have supplied large quantities of the common 
wares in ordinary demand for the need of every large household, and 
possibly for the daily requirement of our humbler classes of citizens. 
The material employed in fabricating this dish of earthenware was 
a fine description of plastic clay, similar to that which was made use 
of for preparing the better class of ornamental tiles. Such a clay, 
when subjected to a strong and continued heat, baked into a firm and 
sonorous mass ; and it affords us ample proof of the skill and high degree 
of perfection attained in its manufacture, when we consider its present 
almost perfect condition after so many years of exposure to running 
water in a common city sewer, for it still retains its hardness, and is 
in as good order as when it left its maker’s kiln. Its shape is much 
like that of an ordinary dish without the outer flat edge; it is longer 
than broad, measuring 17% inches in length, by 153 inches wide, 
and is about 24 inches deep; the angles are rounded, and the outer 
edge indented by a simple impressed pattern; the earthen, pale 
brown-coloured clay of which it consists is about three-eighths of an 
inch in thickness ; it is glazed on the interior only, and this glaze, 
which is very perfect, was put on over a rude but effective series of 
brown-coloured lines running somewhat parallel to each other from 
top to bottom of the dish, and which, by their varying thickness, 
and somewhat curved arrangement, form a rather pleasing appear- 
ance. 
In this interesting example of carly potter’s work, which I would 
refer to about the sixteenth century, we have an opportunity of seeing 
a description of dish so seldom met with, that I am not aware of 
another specimen having been found in our city. It has survived 
through many years under conditions which we might consider in a 
special degree most unfavourable, lying exposed in a subterranean 
stream that is liable to sudden and violent floods, and which has 
served the purpose of a common sewer to some of the oldest portions 
of our metropolis. If, besides this alleged antiquity and exceptional 
survivorship, we identify it with the special form of vessel employed 
from very early times to ‘‘chark”’ or render drinkable the malted ale 
which our ancestors drank before hops were in use, or public breweries 
established, its claims to our notice will not be diminished. 
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