On 31st May 1982, a rather unusual flagon was recovered from the Mary Rose wreck site. what makes it unusual? The numerous markings made on its surface!
This flagon has always been a bit tricky to display, with multiple markings at every angle. However you display it, there will always be something obscured. While drawings have proved useful for showing these markings off, sometimes you want to try something new...
While we've worked with others on photogrammetry projects before, we've never tried to do it ourselves. Before lockdown in 2020, we’d done some preliminary experiments with photogrammetry, with mixed results, so we saw the 40th anniversary of this object’s discovery as a chance to try again. We removed the flagon from its case for a few hours, and we spent those hours photographing it from every angle. In the end, over 1,000 photos were taken!
We then tried to generate a model, with some success. However, getting it perfect was sadly beyond our current skills and hardware. Luckily, we knew someone who could help! The lovely folks at University of Portsmouth came to our aid, and were able to produce a much nicer model, which can be seen below.