Secrets of the Thames

A collection of ten biscuits that resemble aged, chipped mudlarking finds. An oval biscuit in a rich, dark green looks like the seal on a medieval glass bottle, and features a raised characterful face at its centre. Next to it is an unevenly shaped black biscuit with grey chips and the raised shape of a hare’s face, ears, and upper legs. There are two large biscuits with jagged edges, each decorated in blue and white to look like broken pieces of delftware plates. One features the shape of a small bird surrounded by swirling lines, the other has a series of concentric circles and curved shapes. A small biscuit with a multifaceted texture replicates a knapped flint arrowhead. Next to it are a tiny hammer-shaped biscuit in pewter with delicate cross markings, and a very small gold biscuit button etched with lines, circles, and a rough star shape. The smallest biscuit is made to look like a yellow glass cufflink with decorative circles in blue, white, and red. Another biscuit button has the appearance of aged metal and is edged with decorate white and turquoise dots. Finally, there is a small angular biscuit in a terracotta colour with raised lines roughly in the shape of two intwined figures.

Biscuit (cookie) flavour: Sea salt and brown sugar

Decoration: Royal icing base. Designs painted by hand using food colouring gels, edible lustres, and vodka, with relief details piped in royal icing. Aged effect created using food colouring gels and scratch marks.

Context: Created as part of London Museum’s Secrets of the Thames exhibition. Each biscuit recreates one of the 350+ mudlarking finds featured in the exhibition. The artefacts depicted in this biscuit set include:

  • a green glass bottle seal dating from c.1700-1900
  • a Roman colour-coated hunting cup sherd
  • two 17th-century delftware dish sherds
  • a post-medieval yellow glass cufflink
  • an Early Bronze Age flint arrowhead
  • a Roman Samian sherd
  • two post-medieval buttons
  • a Viking Thor’s hammer pendant