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REVIEW BY AB
We have so many written and pictorial records created between 1500 and the present day that it might be supposed that artefacts from this time are of less importance than for earlier periods. Laura Burnett and Rob Webley demonstrate that this is not the case. The 50 objects selected from the almost quarter of a million of this period recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) demonstrate the valuable insights that objects can offer into the stories of individuals who lived in these centuries and the world they inhabited. The finds range from a 16th-/17th-century baby’s teething whistle to a Second World War German aluminium spork and melted coins from the slot machines of Weston-super-Mare’s Grand Pier, which burnt down in 2008. The PAS’ prioritisation of pre-1700 finds means that the database is dominated by the earlier centuries, but objects are present here from across the years, and the chapters are sorted by theme rather than chronology, highlighting the many changes that occurred over time in almost every aspect of life – particularly those that are often missing from the historical records.
Laura Burnett and Rob Webley
Amberley, £15.99
ISBN 978-1398114678
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