If the objects spoke

Almude L023, associated with Casa de Passo de Vides in Pedraça, was used to carry and measure wine. The 2015 record gives it a capacity of 28 litres and describes sheet zinc painted brown, with flaking paint; the original colour was blue. The capacity belongs to this inventoried piece, not to every almude. Even a layer of paint helps tell an object’s life story.

The record gives a height of 55 centimetres and a diameter of 28, identifying Jacqueline Vilela Passos as its owner. External dimensions, capacity and ownership are different kinds of information: together they make the description more useful than the object’s name alone.

The brown paint and traces of blue also show that a piece may have changed through use. The inventory does not date the repainting. Observing the paint reveals a change, but cannot reconstruct every episode in the almude’s life.

In the 2016 inventory, funnel L63 is linked with transferring wine; L18 with passing liquids between containers. Both are made from sheet zinc. Reading the recorded function avoids guessing use from shape alone. Compare them with the alheira funnel: a similar-looking object can serve another task.

L63 measures seventeen centimetres high and 17.7 in diameter; L18 is smaller, at 12.5 centimetres high and ten in diameter. The inventory associates the first with Álvaro Magalhães of Devesa, Basto, and the second with Maria da Conceição Magalhães in Arco de Baúlhe. These are recorded owners’ details, not indications of who made the pieces.

Dimensions, material and function make the comparison more concrete. A greater diameter does not by itself reveal how many litres passed through a funnel or what work took place in a particular house.

Cruet MSRM88, recorded as belonging to the Igreja de São Miguel de Refojos, is described by the Museum as a metal piece for serving olive oil at the table. The 2016 record distinguishes that function from carrying or measuring. This is an inventory description: it neither confirms the piece’s current display nor allows a particular meal to be reconstructed.

One way to explore the collection is to follow the same product through different tasks: measuring, carrying and serving. The cruet belongs to the serving stage; the measures and olive-oil case let you continue the comparison.

Copper mug MTB 241 was used to make coffee. The inventory records a height of 12 centimetres and a diameter of 7.2.

The piece belongs to the Museu das Terras de Basto in Arco de Baúlhe. No manufacture date or recipe is given. Compare the dimensions in the diagram: similar heights can conceal very different widths.

Two oil lamps from Casa da Ponte in Cavez appear in the inventory with heights of 46 and 17 centimetres. Hanging paraffin lamp L 53 from Devesa, Basto, is made of tinplate and measures 27 centimetres.

They shared the function of providing light, but differed in size and form. The record lets us compare them without assuming how they were positioned in each house.