London – Camden – British Museum (Roman or Brazilian?)

I like random exhibits like this, which is on the theme of mistaken identity at the British Museum. These pots were found off Herne Bay in Kent in 1776 and were presented to the museum. They weren’t thought to be of a good enough quality to be Roman, so it was decided that they were “probably Brazilian”. I’m not quite sure what that says about what the thoughts were of the time about Brazilian pottery, but it transpired later on that these were indeed Roman and a ship had been wrecked whilst bringing this Samian ware over from Gaul.