Photo 1: A very elaborate wassail set. This example includes not only the bowl and five of the six original cups, but a stand for them. The bowl has a cover with an integral container for spices on top in the form of a smaller bowl. From Loan Exhibition of Drinking Vessels, books, Documents, etc. Held at Vintner's Hall, London, 1933.

When the excavation of the Elizabeth and Mary was completed in 1997, researchers attention focused on several items found to be rather intriguing. X-Ray examination showed many objects of great interest hidden within the cement-like material of the concretions, but some were more easily accessible on the concretions surfaces. One of the items of interest appeared to be a small, very regularly shaped domed object, thought possibly to be ceramic or glass. It was very difficult to tell, because only a small part of the object was visible. However, it indeed promised to be a very special artifact, and researchers were eager to study it.

Photo 2-3: The little cup, still adhering to its concretion. Courtesy of Parks Canada, Conservation services, Ottawa.

For these reasons, and because curiosity can be an excellent drive in archaeological research, it was decided to detach this unusual object, since we were not quite ready to begin working on the entire concretion. It is usual to treat an entire concretion at once in order to retain the information from it more coherently. Removing the objects one by one creates stresses prejudicial to the integrity of the concretion. All things considered, as the amount of work necessary to detach this circular object seemed limited and would have a minimal impact on the whole concretion, it was decided to proceed with its removal. With great care and precision work, the cup was detached using a small pneumatic hammer and other appropriate tools. After 42 hours, when it was freed from the concretion for the first time in more than 300 years, and the interior could be examined, we were in for a big surprise. The structure was hollow, the edges were very sharp, and this material was neither glass or ceramic, but wood!

Throughout much of the 17^th century, wooden cups with rounded bottoms were made as part of a set with a large wooden serving bowl. This bowl was known as a "wassail bowl". The word wassail comes from the Saxon "waes hael", meaning "be hail" or "be healthy". This was a toast that later came to be associated with festivities around the Christmas season.

The wassail set consisted of a large bowl to make the beverage in and four or six matching cups. The bowl would sometimes have a cover, and the cover could have a smaller bowl in the centre for holding spices to mix into the drink. These sets were almost invariably made of lignum vitae, an extremely dense tropical wood. This wood was very expensive, and the set would be an important status symbol in any household.

By 1690 there were many mixed drinks, both hot and cold, that could have been served in a wassail cup. Samuel Pepys, the English diarist, records that on January 6 (Twelfth Night), 1668, he entertained guests and "had a good sack posset for them, and an excellent cake". A manuscript cookbook written in 1683 by John Brookes has a recipe for sack posset. Sack was any dry, white, southern-European wine:

"Take twelve Eggs, & break them into a bason, whites & yolks, put to them a pinte of sack & a little fine sugar, set them over a chafing-dishe of coals [low heat], & keep them constantle beating [stirring], till the froth bee very high, then have a quart of creame boiling hott, sweetened with sugar & pour itt into the bason, hold the creame upp pretty high when itt is poured in."

This, obviously, makes a very heavy, rich, sweet drink.

Punch was another popular drink in 1690. It could be drunk cold in the summer or hot in the winter. Samuel Sewell, a New England clergyman, notes in his diary that at a gathering on September 28, 1688, he "Had Sturgeon, Wine, Punch, Musick". Rebecca Price compiled a manuscript cookbook in 1681 which has this recipe for punch:

"Take two quarts of water and put to it three quarters of a pound of fine suger, and the juce of 12 Lemons and when the suger is well dissolved strayne it, and put to it a quart of Brandy, and if you please grate in some nuttmeg: you may either drink it presently or keepe it in bottles."

Punch could be made with rum as well as brandy. The city council of St Mary's City, Maryland set the rates that tavern keepers could charge for drinks in January, 1685. The list included "A bowle of punch with a quart of Rum at 30 p(ence)" and "A bowle of punch with a quart of Brandy at 40 p(ence)".

By the end of the 17^th century the lignum vitae bowl and cups were being replaced by vessels of ceramic and glass. Except for the association with Christmas, the term "wassail bowl" had been replaced by "punch bowl".

The existence of a wassail cup in 1690 is no surprise, but its presence on board the Elizabeth and Mary is more difficult to explain. Was it brought by an officer in the militia as a status symbol? Or simply because it was a sturdy, unbreakable vessel? Perhaps both? The puzzle we began with, of the identity of the small, domed object in the concretion, has been solved, but why it was there may remain a mystery.

Photo 4: The electrophoresis installation; (the bowl is hidden by the metallic electrodes). Photo: André Bergeron, Centre de conservation du Québec

The bowl entered the CCQ in november 1999. Before deciding upon the treatment approach, it was necessary to confirm the identity of the wood we were dealing with. As the object was unique, and its surface was very sound, no sample could be detached from it without compromising its integrity. We were forced to limit ourselves to visual examination of the surface and macrophotography. Given the amount of iron covering the surface, it was also very difficult to determine the color of the wood. We knew it was dense, possible exotic, and according to historical references, this type of drinking bowl was often turned from lignum vitae.

If sampling was ruled out as an option, we could try an indirect approach to determine our wood species, by calculating its specific gravity. Each wood species presents several characteristics which are important in the determination of its mechanical and physical behavior. Density is one of them, and although it should be considered an approximation because of natural variations in anatomy and moisture content, it is used for the calculation of specific gravity, to standardize the comparison of species. Our calculations were telling us that the specific gravity of our object was falling into the range between 1.12 and 1.19. Lignum Vitae, with a specific gravity between 1.10 and 1.23 looked like a good candidate, and ebony, which was considered a possibility in the beginning because of the black color was also ruled out because of a specific gravity between 0.98 and 1.09.

We can not be 100% sure unless without taking a sample, but lignum vitae is a distinct possibility. It is a very dense wood, slightly green in color, and oily to the touch, with a high resin content. These characteristics makes it a very good wood in naval carpentry, when wood resistant to warping is needed (in a pulley, for example) but also for the fabrication of prestigious and decorative objects.

With this knowledge, we began searching the literature for the treatment of lignum vitae, and exotic woods in general, and consulted other conservators in the country and abroad in order to assist us with the treatment. The treatment began in december 1999, using electrophoresis to extract the iron contaminating the wood. It is a process that uses electricity, like electrolysis, but it can be used only when the object is non-conductive. Most of the organic artifacts from the Elizabeth and Mary, i.e., the leather, the wood and the rope have been treated this way.

The general idea consists in placing the object you want to treat between two electrodes, one positive and one negative, and circulating an electrical current between the two. In theory, what is positive in charge (like iron) will move toward the negative electrode, and what is negative (like chloride salts) should move toward the positive electrode. An electrolyte is also needed to transport the charges between the two electrodes. In this case, we used a 5% solution of PEG 400 in deionised water.

The next step involved the use of an ultrasonic pen (the same instrument used by your dentist) to remove small sand particulates and debris stucked into the wood cells. Then, a complexant, (a chemical that bonds to the remaining iron on the surface) was used to extract the remaining iron stains and uniformise its visual appearance. With all those preparatory steps accomplished, we were ready to begin the impregnation of the wood with PEG, before using freeze-drying. Drying an artifact made of organic material at room temperature can be risky; by drying it at temperatures below zero, the risks of distortion and craking are diminished.

After nine months of impregnation, the wooden cup was placed in our freeze-dryer, where it stayed for 96 hours. After reaching stability in weight, it was taken out and placed into a closed container in order to improve its acclimatation to the outside world. It behaved well, although some distortion on the rim (very thin) appeared after a while. As a final step, a protective coating of micro-crystalline wax was applied on the surface.

Photos 5 and 6 : The drinking cup, after treatment. Photo: Centre de conservation du Québec, Jean Blanchet.

Now, this object can be studied by material culture researchers and other specialists, and preserved for the greater benefit of all those who will appreciate its beauty during an exhibit.

André Bergeron, Centre de conservation du Québec and Phil Dunning, Parks Canada
Avril 2002

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the following persons involved in the treatment of the object and preparation of this article: From Parks Canada, conservation branch, Doug Beaton, Marthe Carrier and E. Samuelsson, who undertook the detachment of the cup from the concretion, Marc-André Bernier from Parks Canada and Blandine Daux from the Centre de conservation du Québec for their reading comments.

We would also like to thank Patrick Albert and Bernard Vallée from the Centre de conservation du Québec, David Grattan from the Canadian Conservation Institute and Per Hoffmann, from the Deutsches Schiffarts Museum for their advice and assistance in the treatment of the cup.

Bibliography

Brears, Peter, The Gentlewoman's Kitchen: Great food in Yorkshire 1650-1750. Wakefield Historical Pub., Wakefield. England, 1984.
Sell, Jurgen & François Kropf, Propriétés et caractéristiques des essences de bois, Lignum, 1990.
Montluçon, Jacques & Noel Lacoudre, Les objets du Titanic, La mémoire des abîmes, Hermé JFG, 1989.
Pepys, Samuel, Pepy's Diary, Everyman's Library, London, 1936.
Pinto, Edward H., Treen and Other Wooden Bygones, G Bell & Sons, London, 1969.
Price, Rebecca, The compleat Cook, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1974.
Sewell, Samuel, The diary of Samuel Sewell, 1674-1729, Farr, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1973.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest service, Wood Handbook, n.72, Washington, 1974.

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