What is a clombe?

[bristolloggerheads]

In 1618 'sexdecem dozen clombe' were sent from Barnstaple to Galway. This item is spelt the same way in two accounts written by different people - although they could be copying. The wholesale price was effectively 1d each - any ideas what this commodity might be?

[arthurk]

Assuming this document originated in Devon, it could be the old word 'cloam', also found in Devon as 'clomb', which means earthenware.

More details can be found in Joseph Wright's Dialect Dictionary at http://www.rootschat.com/links/01j6q/ or the Oxford English Dictionary.

Here it presumably means so many earthenware pots.

[Old Bristolian]

Barnstaple was an important pottery town in the 17th century, much of it made for export

[bristolloggerheads]

I like the idea of a 'boy's painted clay marble'

[Milliepede]

Clombe of honey ie honeyclombe