Nonsuch Palace

The Material Culture of a Noble Restoration Household

by Martin Biddle

Imprint: Oxbow Books

544 Pages, 8.3 x 11.7 in, 229 b/w illus, 81 tbs

Hardcover
9781900188340
July 2005
Out of print. Available in digital formats at the links below.

$120.00

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

Nonsuch in Surrey was Henry VIII's last and most fantastic palace. Begun in 1538, at the start of the 30th year of Henry's reign, the palace was intended as a triumphal celebration of the power and the grandeur of Henry VIII and the Tudor dynasty. The site was chosen for its fine countryside and hunting potential. Although the layout was fairly typical for a house of this period, arranged around two main courtyards, there its 'ordinariness' ends. The palace was ornately decorated with intricate Renaissance designs in carved and gilded slate and plasterwork, with two great octagonal towers, five storeys high at either end. The king wanted people to be astonished at his new palace, and to say that they had never seen such a fine palace before, hence its name - 'Nonsuch.' Excavations in 1959-60 uncovered a large amount of material from all periods, from occupation to demolition (1538-1684). The finds fall into two categories: architectural and domestic. This volume, the second in the series, publishes the domestic finds, including a large amount of complete or reconstructible glass, ceramics (such as tin-glazed wares, stoneware and earthenware), coins and tokens, clay pipes, pewter vessels, objects of iron, bone, ivory and leather, and a wooden pocket sundial.

Introduction
General introduction (Martin Biddle)
Methods of recording and study (Martin Biddle)
Cuddington
The excavation of Cuddington (Martin Biddle)
The finds from Cuddington (Jacqui Pearce et al)
The Domestic Material from the Occupation of the Palace and Banqueting House in the Later Seventeenth Century
The groups of finds and their dating (Martin Biddle)
The analytical database (Jane Webster)
Tin-glazed ware (Michael Archer)
Stoneware (Robin J C Hildyard)
Fine vessel glass (Robert J Charleston)
Green glass bottles (Marton Biddle and Jane Webster)
Wine-bottle seals (Martin Biddle)
Coins, jettons and tokens (Hugh Pagan and Robert H Thompson)
Clay pipes (D R Atkinson)
Pewter vessels (Rosemary Weinstein, with Roger Brownsword)
Lead objects (Geoff Egan)
Window lead (Geoff Egan)
Copper-alloy objects (Alison Goodall, with Catherine Mortimer)
Iron objects (Ian H Goodall)
Spurs (Blanche M A Ellis)
Wooden pocket sundial (Francis R Maddison and Penelope Gouk)
Worked bone and ivory (Arthur MacGregor)
Leather (J H Thornton)
Miscellaneous objects (Martin Biddle)
Animal bone (Alison Locker)
Mollusca (June Chatfield)
The archaeology of a Berkeley household (Martin Biddle)
Concordances
Index

PROFESSOR MARTIN BIDDLE is an Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was the first Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology in England, at the University of Exeter (1963–67) and has held many other distinguished academic positions worldwide. He is the Founder and Director of the Winchester Excavations Committee (1962–present) and the Winchester Research Unit (1968–present). Professor Biddle is also Chairman of the Fabric Advisory Committee (FAC) for Winchester Cathedral, Archaeological Consultant for St Albans Cathedral, and former Archaeological Consultant for Canterbury Cathedral.

essentially a conventional finds report. And a fine thing it is too, with high scholarship, wonderful production standards...' ~Paul Stamper, British Archaeology, 2005

extremely thorough' ~Geoff Egan, Current Archaeology, 2006

[a] very well produced volume [which] relates to a single site, it will serve a much wider purpose as a valuable reference work for material, however slight, from the Tudor period.' ~Peter A Clayton, Minerva, 2006

Nonsuch was a large operation carried out with great skill and it is now lavishly published; it is a work of inestimable value to all students. The considerable costs have been justified and the reviewer would certainly commend it to the readers of Antiquity.' ~Michael Thompson, Antiquity, 2006