Thanks Vicky!

Photo of the same pipe bowl alongside another pipe bowl which is a common shape but at its base has an unusual heel, a bit like a foot sticking out in front.

2/2: And here it is alongside another recent find with a distinctive and unusual heel - this one looks rather like a foot!

Photo of a clay tobacco pipe bowl with an elegantly leaning oval shape and a curly heel at its base.

Photo of the same pipe bowl, showing the back of the bowl with a stamped mark - the words TRADE MARK in a circle, and inside the circle is the letter D.

1/2: Isn't this pipe bowl a lovely shape?
It also has a maker's stamp at the back of the bowl - TRADE MARK with a D in the centre. So, a pipemaker whose name begins with D - that's not actually very helpful...

Here's the rainbow(s) from Monday afternoon, as seen from Rotherhithe looking over to the Isle of Dogs. It was an unusually low rainbow, that started and ended in the river!
I went down to where it appears to start, but of course it wasn't there but everywhere...

An upturned scallop shell filled with about 20 china marbles, all with painted designs on them (circles, plant sprigs) though most of the designs are very faded.

3/3: It now joins the rest of the 'pearls' in my scallop! These china marbles are prized finds in the Thames; they were made in Germany from the 1840s to around 1910, hand-painted, and exported widely. I love the variety of sizes and designs.

2/3: Aha, indeed it is! It's quite faded but you can still make out the red spiral and the green sprigs around the middle. It's one of the larger ones I've found...

Photo of something white and round seen lying on the Thames foreshore under a few inches of murky water.

1/3: Ooh, could this be a china marble that I spy underwater?

A complete short pipe held in my hand with the same leaves around the pipe bowl; it's about 5 inches long with a slight curve in the stem, and a very elegant object.

2/2: Here's the complete one, found in the same patch a few years ago. Those leaves probably represent tobacco leaves, which is appropriate for a tobacco pipe.

A pile of wet rocks on the Thames foreshore, with a clay pipe bowl half hidden between them.

The same pipe bowl, now clean and dry, held in my fingers. It has four large leaves in relief around the sides of the bowl.

1/2: This clay pipe bowl was found a bit battered among the rocks - but I recognised it immediately, as I found a complete one of these in the same area about two years ago - follow the thread to compare:

Photo of a smooth muddy patch of the Thames foreshore, partly under water, with a large sprig of bluebells lying washed up.

Spring on the Thames foreshore.... it's funny how often bluebells find their way there!

For race horses, that indeed makes sense.🙂

Photo of the same pipe in my hand later, clean and dry.

2/2: This shape dates 1850-1910, and it was a pipe for everyday use, with a shorter stem making it easier to smoke when working or out and about.

Photo of a patch of foreshore; lying on the mud/sand is a complete pipe, though it's a relatively short one with a stem of about 5 inches. You can tell it's complete as the mouthpiece is intact. It's a bit stained from the river, but otherwise in very tidy condition and unchipped.

1/2: This complete clay pipe was revealed on the foreshore as the tide receded during one of the recent extra-low tides - and I could see immediately that it was a complete one, intact with mouthpiece!

Another good observation... or maybe new horses were picked up at the location the carriage was going to?

Aha - excellent observation - I hadn't compared it with the other one, but that makes complete sense as to how the transfer was supposed to work around the handle. I can just imagine them hiding it among the others as you describe!

Photo of a complete mug showing a very similar design, with railway carriages passing the front of a hilly country landscape.

Another example of the same type of mug, where the hilly background obviously doesn't match at the point where the transfer joins!

2/2: ... it's the Railway design - made by many different makers, and often in other colours too, such as these complete examples. The second example is an interesting one because you can see the join in the transfer - the rail wagons join fairly neatly, but the hills in the background don't!

Photo of a broken fragment of blue and white china, depicting part of two joined carriages, one obviously carrying a horse-drawn carriage.

1/2: A distinctive cup fragment found on the Thames foreshore, depicting railway carriages, including a road carriage getting a lift! I thought this should be an easy one to identify, but I needed the help of transferware expert Dr Richard Halliday, who recognised it...

Thanks very much! Pipes with hands are one of my favourites. And I've been lucky with dogs! The plastic seahorses - and all other items in that display case - were all found on the foreshore.

A belated mention of the Watermen's Hall mudlarking exhibition at the end of March; these are my display cases that I enjoyed arranging. My new Empress pipe bowl (second photo, centre right) looks like she's delighted to be on display again after so long in undignified obscurity in the Thames mud!

Thank you!

Photo of two clay pipes with acorn-shaped bowls - the latest find, and another similar one, more broken but with a heel shaped like an acorn.

3/3: This photo shows it alongside another acorn pipe that I found around the same time - while it's broken, it has a nice acorn-shaped heel.

2/3: But I took it home, before it got broken any further... It's a little worn but has character and an unusual rounded heel with the maker's initials.

Photo of a small patch of Thames foreshore with stones and empty shells; lying amongst them is a clay tobacco pipe with half of its stem still intact; its bowl is shaped like an acorn.

1/3: This acorn-shaped clay pipe was lying among the rocks and shells as if it belonged there; it seemed a natural companion to those empty shells discarded after a meal long-ago...

Thank you!

Thank you - isn't it; a great bottle in many ways.

Thanks very much!

4/4: And here's the J. Mills & Sons bottling factory - this complex of Victorian industrial buildings has been beautifully restored, is now called The Bottle Factory and is home to lots of different small businesses. Info here: thebottlefactory.london/find-your-sp...

Photo of the base of the bottle with lovely lettering that reads 'J. Mills & Sons, London'.

Photo of the top of the bottle - around the neck there's lettering that reads 'J. M. & S'

Photo of the top of the bottle - on the other side of the neck there's further lettering that reads 'Rd 43102'. Rd probably means registered, so this is probably a registration number.

3/4: And lovely crisp lettering from J Mills and Sons. I'd recently been reading about the redevelopment of their former factory off the Old Kent Road, so I searched my bottle collection at the time to see if I had one from J Mills - disappointingly I didn't at the time, but now I've found one!

The bottle excavated and lying on the mud, showing that it's complete, and has a distinctive top shaped a bit like a beehive.

The same bottle after cleaning, held in my hand.

2/4: And indeed, it did turn out to be a complete ginger beer bottle, with its distinctive 'beehive' top nicely intact...

Photo of part of a stoneware bottle emerging from the mud; the bottle is a lovely light honey-brown colour. At the base you can see a few letters, including LON... for London.

1/4: What a tantalising sight! When I spotted this during a low tide on the Thames foreshore, I knew it was potentially a complete stoneware bottle. And one with a name and location - you can see a glimpse of lettering at the bottle's base....