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Figure In The Sand

taras

taras

Least Haunted
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
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Location
Edinburgh
My flatmate and I visited Inchcolm Island this afternoon. There is a very nice abbey there, as well as WW2 gun emplacements, ammunition tunnels, and a lot of seagulls.

Anyway, I was convinced if we went down to the beach, I would find something interesting, so I told my flatmate that and we went to have a look.

The first thing I found was a piece of pottery, and a few steps on, I found the attached ceramic figure, upturned in some dry seaweed. If anyone has any idea who it is, that would be very helpful. I showed it to the island's custodian, and he said he walks that beach three times a day picking up weathered glass and he hadn't seen it before.

I am going to take it to the museum tomorrow morning to see if they know.
 
Oh wow, what a lovely find.

Looks like a distinguished 17th century gentleman to me!
 
I have done a tiny bit of googling and he could be the Earl of Rosebery, whose family estate looks out onto the island where this was washed up.

Perhaps this chap or one of his forefathers:
http://www.dalmeny.co.uk/history/history.htm

Incidentally, the 5th Earl of Rosebery was Prime Minister in 1894-5, and bears some resemblance to the above fellow.

And he was married into the Rothschild family. I might have uncovered the start of some kind of Illuminati conspiracy... or not.
 
Here it is from the back.

It's really light, but not plastic. It seems to be some kind of porous rock. Smells of seawater (surprisingly!!)

I'm kind of hoping the museum goes, well that is a nice item, and then puts it on display and I get a little "on loan from" card ;) :D

[edit] My other flatmate, who "knows about these things", says it is probably a pipe-clay miniature bust from around 1750, "although pipe-clay sticks to your tongue, and this tastes like plastic"... :rolleyes:
 
Looks like it might be ivory. Or maybe alabaster?

Let us know if the museum tells you anything.
 
Better report it quick rather than get done for handling stolen goods!
 
yes, if it is meerschaum (spelling???) or even ordinary pipe clay then it ought to be visible granular on the sections... unless the sea has worn it too far? Of course, breaking a fresh section would allow a close examination :D

if it is a pipe then you may be able to get a date of production to within 5 years, as well as a maker and place of manufacture.


I'm also wondering about broken big resin chess piece?

Kath
 
It's definitely not any of the ivory sculptures. :p

Also, I get the impression the museum would take it off me and then put it in their basement catalogue, never to be seen again...

Although having said that: http://www.amnumsoc.org/inc/treasur.htm
Wilful non-reporting of finds is also a problem, with motives ranging from: i) mistrust of the Establishment (i.e. the suspicion that a full market value reward will not be paid); ii) the desire to retain finds for private enjoyment; iii) the (mistaken) view that all material will be "whisked away to a cellar in the National Museums of Scotland, never again to be seen locally".
Click to expand...
 
My grandmother used to have an antique tea set with a butter dish and sugar bowl, the lids had handles that looked something like that.
 
taras said:
My other flatmate, who "knows about these things", says it is probably a pipe-clay miniature bust from around 1750
Click to expand...

I reckon your flatmate has the age about right (perhaps 20 or 30 years earlier (early 18th century is my guess)).

I must agree with the previous posters - it's a wonderful find. Isn't it great to hold a piece of history in your hand?

When I was a lad in London in the early fifties, we used to go "mudlarking" on the Thames embankment at low tide. I had quite a collection of beautiful clay pipe bowls. Elizabethan or Regency gentlemen would smoke a pipe while at the riverside or on one of the many ferries that plied the Thames and, if the delicate pipestem snapped (as they all too often did), they would just chuck the broken pipe into the river.

Your find is most serendipitous.
 
I work at the Williamson Tunnels. (More info about Jospeh Williamson - very interesting bloke see: http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk or .com) And our diggers uncover masses of clay pipes 1840+ AD in date, many of them are imported and many decorated with sailing motifs. One even had masonic marks on it. We have found some pipe-clay models similar to the one in the picture and suprisingly, our historian thinks that they were childrens figures rather than decorative ornaments.

What this post was meant to achive other than an unashamed plug for the tunnels is beyond my inferior mortal brain...

*wanders off muttering to some other thread*
 
Sorry, but I wasn't implying that the object found by Taras is a clay pipe bowl - it most certainly is not. I was merely rambling on about the halcyon days of my youth :eek:

The shiny surface of the object suggests that it is made from a much harder material than pipe clay.
 
Arthur ASCII said:
The shiny surface of the object suggests that it is made from a much harder material than pipe clay.
Click to expand...

Plastic? :)

I'm going to find out today, if I have time (which I should!)
 
It feels like plastic, but it doesn't look like plastic. I went to the museum again today and again was messed around and told the curator who could help me was away for a week... the receptionist suggested it might be bone, which it could be.
 
You could try heating a pin to red heat and pushing it into an inconspicuous place on the head.

If it melts in or smells of burning plastic, that answers it one way. If it smells of burning bone (the sort of smell that you get when your teeth are drilled at the dentist's) it's either bone or ivory. Ceramic won't do anything.

If it explodes into flames, I didn't suggest this... ;)

Whatever it's made of it's an intriguing thing to find on the beach.(I usually only find shells and jellyfish)
 
From what it looks like on the back, particularly that "squiggle" of material and the porous appearance, I think Pete might be onto something - some kind of decoration from a ceramic or procelain piece?
 
If its plastic (heaven forfend!) could it be a badly seaworn bust of the type that Petrol Stations used to give away (Footballers, Great Composers etc, etc.)? Its about the right scale with a 10 pence and it was very hard irvory coloured plastic.... And yes, I'm old enough to remember the James Bond stick-on bullet holes...
 
I think the squiggle on the back looks like some sort of encrustation that it's picked up in the sea. Other than that I've no ideas. It is a very lovely piece though.
 
I don't know - the squiggle seems to me to be part of the piece.
 
Yes, I can see it clearer in that pic, thanks. Afraid I still haven't a clue what it could be tho.
 
Looking at the back of the curious item, I see what appear to be many shallow pin-prick depressions such as may be found when looking at a cross-section of a piece of bone; the polished surface of the front belies this theory though, as does the fact that it has survived being dragged up and down a beach by the action of tides.

I have seen similar surface features on items made of glass that have been cast in a mould, and that's my guess.

How frustrating not to be able to handle the damned thing and get a feel for it.

Why is there never a remote viewer or psychic about when you need one?
 
Taras, any word? it appears this thread is about a year old and I'm curious as to what you might ahve found out. BTW, there's no pic any longer. Is it because the thread is so old?
 
Prior to The Great Board Changeover approx. five months ago, pictures were actually hosted on the board; you'd just upload them. (so were avatars) Now everything must be linked from off-site. That's why the pic is gone -- but perhaps some astute Fortean has saved it?
 
Thanks, Leaferne. I've only been a member for a month so I didn't have a clue. Hope Taras posts an update, tho.
 
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