Update

Almost finished measuring and photographing the V&A's 285 objects - this has involved moving between the Ceramics Study Room and the off-site storage in Blythe House. Now the hard work begins, tracing 'lost numbers' through the registers and citing any published pieces in the Herzfeld/Sarre/Lamm volumes. Fortunately various researchers have generously made their documentation available, which is an enormous help - these are principally: Fatma Dahmani, Christoph Konrad, Matt Saba, Nadine Schibille, and both Alastair Northedge's and Jens Kroger's encyclopaedic knowledge of the site is always invaluable. Many thanks to them all!

Of course all this research has been greatly facilitated by the Freer Sackler's digitised website of Herzfeld's papers and the Lubkins' translation of the Finds Journal. I am adding the V&A accession number for each piece identified to their document, which should give us an additional means of cross referencing objects. Eventually if every institution adds their own accession numbers to this document we should be able to present researchers with a comprehensive list of Samarra finds and their current location. By a process of elimination we will then be able to calculate what proportion of Herzfeld's finds were indeed lost in the period of their peregrination between 1917 and 1921.

Rosalind Wade Haddon