Grenade

In 1672, John Dwight set up a pottery in Fulham. He became the first Englishman to make stoneware, produced by firing clay at very high temperatures. In the 1970s, excavations at Fulham revealed the extent of Dwight’s wares and experiments.

This spherical hand-grenade is made out of a heavy, well-fired natural (unslipped) salt-glazed stoneware. It was the only example found during the course of the excavation. It is incomplete, although the fuse hole profile is extant. Similar pottery grenades, but in local earthenwares, are known from a number of English Civil War contexts. In the 17th century grenades were largely confined to siege warfare owing to their limited explosive force. The grenade was charged with gunpowder and fitted with a wooden plug perforated for a fuse. This example was evidently made during the Third Dutch War (1672-1674) and was possibly to impress the military or naval authorities.