This plate was recovered from excavations at Eagle Warehouse. Eagle warehouse was built by Messrs May and Wade in 1902. It was used to store provisions for many years but was empty in the 1960s when it was bought by the Southampton Borough Council with the aim of creating a Museum of Technology. That was never achieved, and in the 1980s it became the Archaeology Store.
The excavations revealed the remains of a house which burnt down c. 1500. The finds from this phase include a large number of Mediterranean pottery imports such as this plate, Venetian glass, and food remains that together suggest a wealthy and well-fed merchant lived on the site.
The Montelupo plate depicts what has been described as a happy fish in the centre. The fish may well be swimming in the river Arno, down which the Tuscan potters exported their wares to Pisa, and thence to Spain, Europe and the Americas.
It was probably made in the period c. AD 1500-1550.
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