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What We Did
Amid great fanfare from the local press and keen interest of the general public, the Canterbury Museum purchased a significant collection of unbroken, 2000-year-old Roman glass vessels in 1901. Some of these were displayed, but the collection was never properly studied and lay hidden in storage for over a century. MA student Roswyn Wiltshire identified, photographed and catalogued this glass collection for the Canterbury Museum, noting that the collector had an odd preference for small bottles and flasks from ancient graves. In reality these small flasks held perfume, left as a grave gift. But detective work showed that the same flasks appealed to Victorian Britons, who mistakenly identified them as “tear vials” (lachrymatories) and believed that they once held the tears of the mourner. Newspaper clippings and maudlin Victorian romantic poetry illustrate the extent of this fad, and help explain why Cantabrians were so pleased with the purchase.
Who Was Involved
Roswyn Wiltshire (MA in Classics 2020, now at Oxford University) with Emma Brooks (Canterbury Museum), Assoc Prof Alison Griffith (Classics) and Terri Elder (Curator, Teece Museum)
Why It Matters
The Canterbury Museum has rich collection of antiquities, with thousands of objects from all over the world, many of which have never been properly studied. The partnership between UC and the Canterbury Museum facilitates the study, publication, display of this rich, multi-cultural heritage resource, and fosters greater understanding of our shared human past.
Learn More
- Wiltshire, R. Y. “The Damon Collection: Canterbury Museum’s Roman Glass,” Records of the Canterbury Museum 35 (2021, forthcoming)
- Wilthsire, R.Y., “What Said this Rude Antique: Victorian Reception of Roman Glass,” Greece & Rome 69.2 (2022, forthcoming)
Photo Caption:
Roswyn Wiltshire, MA student in 2019, measuring a glass flask
