Glazed Pottery Tallow or Oil-Lamp from Oxford: 14th century

The little ceramic oil-lamp, found in excavations on the site of the Westgate Centre in Oxford, tells us a great deal about improvements in living standards from Saxon times, when the timber houses were lighted at night by plain clay pedestal lamps.

The technology for lighting the house after dark is still the same: by means of oil and a wick in the upper saucer. But the house now has proper furniture, so that the flat base is designed to sit on a table or shelf, which the lower saucer would help to protect from drips, as well as holding a longer length of wick wound round the pedestal, so that the light could last the whole evening. The pretty copper-speckled lead glaze, as well as the more elegant shape, may indicate copying an original in metal.