These are 18th century clay wig curlers, some broken, all found on the Thames foreshore. Did you know they set the curls in hair by wrapping it around these curlers then baking it in a pastry crust. Ingenious!
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“Hair which does not curl or buckle naturally is brought to it by art, by first boiling and then baking it in the following manner; after having picked and sorted the hair, they roll them up and tie them tight down upon little cylindrical instruments, either of wood or

earthenware….in which state they are put into a pot over the fire, there to boil for full three hours; when taken out they let them dry, and when dried they spread them on a sheet of brown paper, cover them with another, and then send them to the pastry-cook, who making a crust

or coffin around them, of common paste, sets them in an oven till the crust is about three fourths baked.” 'Plocacosmos: Or the Whole Art Of Hairdressing' (1782), James Stewart