Casgliadau Arlein

Brass manilla recovered in c.1979 from the wreck of the DOURO at Round Rock, Western Rocks, Scilly Isles. The wreck is well recorded in contemporary accounts as having occurred on 28 January 1843 on a voyage from Liverpool to Oporto, the vessel being a snow of 219 tons built in Sunderland.

The manilla would have been loaded for export in Liverpool, and is almost certainly British-manufactured. In this period Welsh smelters overwhelmingly dominated the UK copper industry, so the copper that with zinc makes up the brass was very likely Welsh-smelted. In earlier periods manillas had been a significant product of both the north Wales and south Wales copper and brass industries, and these examples are wholly typical and representative.