Sunday 16 July 2017

Mystery Candlestick

A Sanna resident reports, "I found this pewter candlestick at the water's edge at low tide on the main beach at Sanna. It wasn't buried when I found it but was in a spot where the sands change regularly with the storms. Could it have been washed ashore? It's hard to imagine how. Were it, say, off a ship, surely it would have stayed were it landed."

Does anyone know how old this might be, or have any idea how it might have appeared at Sanna?

Many thanks to the Sanna resident for the picture and story.

3 comments:

  1. Haha, probably fell out of a Vikings rucksack! Seriously, would love to know more....

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  2. Many thanks to PE and GT whose researches have suggested that it may be a late 18th / early 19th century English Georgian single pewter candlestick - see https://www.applecrossantiques.com/metalwork/pewter

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  3. From Chris Mycock: Re the candlestick, what a shame it's a bit battered.

    As to how it got on the shoreline, consider that before the advent of municipal rubbish collections, folk used to dump their rubbish wherever they could - for a modern equivalent, think fly-tipping. The nearest stream, or - for those who lived along the shore, the sea - would have been a very convenient dustbin. For example, where the burns run into Broadford Bay at Waterloo, Skye, it's not hard to find 19th and early 20th century water-worn glass, potsherds, even building débris.

    My guess is that the candlestick was dumped into the sea along with other household waste. However, given the late 18th/early 19th century date, a romanticist's view could be that it found its way there during the Clearances.

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