Legge's Mount, Tower of London, Chemical Analysis of the Cupels
Author(s): Harriet White
A small but important collection of used and unused cupels were excavated from the surrounds of a 16th-century furnace situated at Legge’s Mount, the north-west bastion of the Tower of London. The cupels were examined by XRF and SEM-EDS to shed light on the raw materials used in their manufacture and the reasons for their use. The investigations revealed the cupels were fabricated from pure bone ash and faced with a layer of finely ground bone ash, reflecting the descriptions of cupel manufacture by 16th-century authors. It was further shown that they were used for refining silver in which the main contaminant was copper.
- Report Number:
- 57/2010
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 19
- Keywords:
- Medieval Metal Working-non Fe Silver Technology
