Trying to identify small stone carvings

[BradyS]

Good morning,

As the title says it, I'm trying to identify a few small stone carvings. This is for a friend, she got in possession of them and she is a researcher, so would like to identify them from a historical point of view (if any), rather from the financial value point of view.

Maybe some of you have seen something similar. She suspects they are stamps, but the face is not flat. I was thinking of very old figurines, where the 'tail' would serve as support.

 

[Andy's Shed]

You could try searching the database here https://finds.org.uk/

 

[Cabinetman]

I may be completely off course but I suspect they are to do with pottery, the things that look like thick nails could have been used as stilts in the kiln - stops the glaze sticking the pot to the shelf, and a long shot but the carved pieces may have been pushed into the clay to imprint the decoration?
Ian

 

[Richard_C]

You could try the V&A website, www.vam.ac.uk. click on collections, pick a category, click the with photos filter and spend happy hours lookin through their thousands of catalogued pictures. Good for all kinds of things including furniture.

 

[BradyS]

You could try searching the database here https://finds.org.uk/

You could try the V&A website, www.vam.ac.uk. click on collections, pick a category, click the with photos filter and spend happy hours lookin through their thousands of catalogued pictures. Good for all kinds of things including furniture.

I thank you for the resources, they are amazing! I know I've seen that support thingie somewhere before but I did a lot of research in my life, just can't put my finger on it.

 

[BradyS]

I may be completely off course but I suspect they are to do with pottery, the things that look like thick nails could have been used as stilts in the kiln - stops the glaze sticking the pot to the shelf, and a long shot but the carved pieces may have been pushed into the clay to imprint the decoration?
Ian

That is actually very plausible. Not sure about the support, that seems to be shaped for the figurines to stand and be displayed. It's the only position in which they are perfectly flat in all contacting points. The design however is possible to be imprinted the way you say. Can be pottery or some ement-based composition. I'm not very familiar with stone as a material so I can't say. Their back side is reddish and shows some surface translucence which made me guess it was stone, not sure by far.

 

[Cabinetman]

The kiln spikes, I’m sorry I don’t know the correct term, have stopped being used as there is a different way nowadays. If you look on the underside of old plates etc you can often see 3 marks where the plate was sat on spikes like those to melt the glaze in the kiln.
I’m sure someone will be along soon who knows. Spriles?