Earthenware Vessel

Attributed to convict potter Thomas Ball, c1801–1823

Excavated by archaeologists from the Rum Hospital south wing, this lead-glazed earthenware vessel probably once contained medicines or ointments for treating convict patients. It is thought to have been made by convict potter Thomas Ball, who ran a pottery at the Brickfields (now Haymarket) between 1801 and 1823. Ball’s trademark lead-glazed earthenware vessels like this one, are among the earliest ceramics made in Australia.

Born in Staffordshire, where much of England’s pottery was manufactured, Ball was transported in 1799 on the Hillsborough with a seven year sentence for highway robbery. Upon arrival in Sydney, Ball may have been put to work making bricks, and by 1801-2 he had selected land in the Brickfields where he established the first pottery business in the colony. By 1804 Ball had served out his sentence and was free to work for himself, and later reported that he ‘has had those premises twenty two years and has always had uncommon encouragement from every Governor during that period’. In 1827, years after he made this vessel, Ball fell ill and died, aged 42, at the Rum Hospital.

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Convict Sydney, Level 1, Hyde Park Barracks Museum
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Objects

These convict-era objects and archaeological artefacts found at Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint (Rum Hospital) are among the rarest and most personal artefacts to have survived from Australia’s early convict period

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Convict Sydney

Bible & Prayer Book

The name and the date 1837 written inside the covers tell us they once belonged to an English brass founder named Thomas Bagnall

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Convict Sydney

Jaw harp

This iron jaw harp was found by archaeologists at Hyde Park Barracks alongside other convict-era objects

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Convict Sydney

Clock-winding crank

This sturdy crank was used for many years to wind the Hyde Park Barracks clock

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Convict Sydney

Hack barrow

Convict brickmakers working at the Brickfields (now Haymarket) used hack barrows like this one, stacking 20 or 30 wet bricks on the timber palings along the top, for transporting them from the moulding table to the ‘hack’ yard for drying

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Convict Sydney

Cupping glasses & scarificator

These cupping glasses are of the type that was used in the treatment of convict patients at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital

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Convict Sydney

Convict gaming tokens

These bone, ceramic, and wooden gaming tokens appear to have been hand-carved by convicts from rubbish scraps and animal bones saved from their meals

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Convict Sydney

What was convict assignment?

‘Assignment’ meant that a convict worked for a private landowner

Composite image of a clay pipe with a broken bowl, viewed from both sides
Convict Sydney

Clay tobacco pipe

There were 1500 fragments of convict-era clay tobacco pipes recovered by archaeologists from Hyde Park Barracks

Composite image of a cauldron. One view from the front the other above.
Convict Sydney

Cooking cauldron

The watery stew eaten by convicts at Hyde Park Barracks was boiled in giant communal cast iron pots

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Convict Sydney

Clay tobacco pipes, repaired

Known as steamers to the convicts, these tobacco pipes have been repaired with resin and twine where their fragile stems broke