Angela

I was lucky enough to find this pretty rare, hand-carved, stone medieval casting mould on a recent lark. It’s been on my wish list for a while so I’m thrilled it came my way!

After consulting with casting expert Colin Torode of Lionheart Replicas, it looks as though I’ve found one part of a three-part mould. It’s the component containing the funnel-shaped sprue and runners through which the molten metal would have flowed to the actual casting cavity. The flat surface with the small holes looks to have been the back of the casting, and the holes are vents. They connect with the larger holes seen on the side of the mould. According to Colin, whatever product this mould created probably had quite an elaborate design, as it needed complex venting. The vents basically allowed air or gases to escape so the metal could flow into all the intricate details without any voids.

The faint engraving on the face with the small holes are strengthening lines which would have sat on the back of the item cast. They hint at the shape of the finished product. I’d love to know what it was…

An unusual find on the foreshore of the Thames, but many 13th Century moulds of similar construction were found in 2005 in a rubbish pit during the excavation of a workshop in Magdeburg, Germany. The Magdeburg foundry documents the earliest evidence of this venting technology so far, which was then apparently adopted by other foundries across the whole of Europe. I wonder who created and used this mould, an immigrant craftsman from Magdeburg or a medieval Londoner copying their complex mould designs?

Swipe through for the photo shoot and to the end for an illustration of a medieval pewterer at work.

Check out the accounts of fellow river hunters Caroline @carolinenmudlark , Fran @franjoy7 , Sam @megasteg , Jason @jasonmudlark , Ed @ed_bucknall and Mike @thebottlewader for more fantastic examples of stone mould finds.

#mudlarking #castingmould #medievalmould #londonmudlark #stonemould