The Production and Archaeological Analysis of 18th and 19th Century American Ceramics

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Liebeknecht.

The origins of the New Jersey stoneware industry -- and perhaps even the American stoneware industry -- seem to lie in the late 17th century with an awareness that high-grade clays suitable for making dense, hard, durable pottery were present in the South Amboy area of Middlesex County in the Province of East Jersey.  As early as 1685-86, there are indications in the court records of Burlington County in West Jersey that such clays were known to early settlers.  This clay source was presumably...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Meta F Janowitz.

Salt-glazed stoneware vessels and sherds found on 19th century sites are generally assumed to be of North American manufacture, unless they are highly decorated, but sherds from 18th century sites are usually identified as German made. American potters, however, made highly decorated vessels in the German style beginning in the early 18th century and many vessels attributed to Europe were made in New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. These vessels can be identified by their pastes and other...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Hunter.

Ceramic research continues to be a mainstay of historical archaeology endeavors.  In spite of years of the so-called quantitative approaches to ceramic analyses including mean dating, South’s pattern analysis, and most recently the DAACS’s  recording methodology, the basics of identifying specific potters and their products is alive and well.  Writing the story of American ceramics is a regional undertaking.  It requires historical research, excavation, material science, study of antique...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jamie M. Meinsen.

Excavation of the Pethick Site in Schoharie County, New York first began in the summer of 2004 with a field school organized by the New York State Museum Cultural Research Survey Program and the University at Albany. The resulting research has largely been dominated by the study of prehistoric ceramics and stone tools. Like the Native Americans, early European settlers in the Schoharie Valley were draw to the Pethick Site’s proximity to the Schoharie Creek, which is one of the major tributaries...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lindsay Bloch.

Working with fragmentary collections, it is often difficult for archaeologists to assess potentially diagnostic vessel forms or surface treatments on utilitarian ceramics. It is therefore a challenge to identify the production origins for many of these wares. Surveying the products from 24 historic earthenware kiln sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, this paper considers the reliability of visual attributes such as paste color and inclusions for distinguishing the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brenda Hornsby Heindl.

Important to the study of historic pottery is removing notions of contemporary craft and dated research on potters both rural and urban being secluded to local markets. If archaeology is evidence of anything, it is evidence that potters were not isolated, even for the early vestiges of production in America. Kiln sites are also evidence of potters' interests and capability of making large quantities of pottery for a broad market, as well as often making both earthenware and stoneware in one...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen T. Rogers.

The early production of earthenware pottery was concentrated in upper East Tennessee where thirty-three of the forty-five recorded earthenware pottery sites were located.  Centered in Greene County, earthenware production began about 1800s and lasted in several isolated areas until the 1890s.  This continuation of older ceramic traditions previously established in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and especially North Carolina demonstrate the diffusion and evolution of regional variation as potters...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carl Steen. Daniel Elliott. Rita F. Elliott.

The first European potters in South Carolina worked at the Spanish settlement of Santa Elena between 1565 and 1585. When the English established their permanent settlement at Charleston in 1670 pottery making was not a consideration. Andrew Duche, son of Philadelphia potter Anthony Duche moved to Charleston in the early 1730s and worked there briefly before moving south to Georgia. Another potter working in the European tradition moved to the frontier township of Purysburg later in the 1730s,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick H. Garrow.

The term "whiteware" is used in historical archaeology to denote refined ceramics with a whiter and denser body than pearlware that generally postdates ca. 1830. Some researchers restrict the use of the term to all later nineteenth century refined ceramics but ironstone and porcelain, while far too many in our field use the term to describe virtually all refined ceramics made after ca. 1830. This paper suggests that the use of the term "whiteware" has made dating sites or components after ca....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kurt Russ.

From urban centers like Richmond to backcountry markets in the upper Shenandoah Valley, developing Virginia stoneware manufacturing traditions were strongly influenced by New York and New Jersey production.  The migration of potters rooted in this early transplanted Germanic stoneware tradition -- many sought out by Virginia businessmen and entrepreneurs beginning in the last decade of the eighteenth century – resulted in regional styles and variation in production in Virginia reflective of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chris T. Espenshade.

The nineteenth-century potters of southwestern Virginia came from diverse, geographic sources.  These individuals brought with them extra-local traditions of pottery decoration and kiln technology.  The origins and interactions of Washington County potters will be delineated as case studies of how potters moved across the countryside.  Individual potter histories will presented as illustrative of the general trend of movement of potters out of Pennsylvania, Delaware, eastern Maryland, and New...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Deborah L. Miller.

The potting industry of Philadelphia has a long and storied past, beginning in the late 17th century with William Crews, the first documented potter in the city. More than fifty years of archaeological research has provided incredible insight into the ceramics industry of Philadelphia, not only in terms of available wares, but also the role Philadelphia ceramics played in the early American marketplace. This presentation explores the 18th century development and diversity of the Philadelphia...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph M. Bagley.

A systematic re-processing of the ceramic assemblages recovered from the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston during the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig) is revealing new insights and research avenues into this prominent 18th-century earthenware production center.  This paper will review the history of the dozens of potters participating in Charlestown’s potting industry in the 17th and 18th centuries and provide a preliminary typology and dating guide to Charlestown wares and decorations. ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Wesley S. Clarke.

The Nathaniel Clark pottery was established at Marietta, Ohio, in 1808 and is thus one of the first such operations in the region.  Excavations initiated in 2013 have encountered well-preserved features, and have produced a useful sample of product and production debris over three field seasons.  Concurrent documentary research is also providing details on the personal and business contexts of the Clark pottery.  The location of this manufactory at a major regional hub provides insight regarding...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary L. Farrell. Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton.

Not long ago, Pennsylvania potter, Jack Troy declared "if North America has a ‘pottery state’ it must be North Carolina, as there is probably no other state with such a highly developed pottery consciousness,"  – and he is right!  North Carolina’s pottery heritage is unique in many ways:  it is the most southern state with a well-developed earthenware tradition (ca. 1750s);  it is the most northern state with an alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition, in addition to its salt-glaze; its early...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Juliette J. Gerhardt.

Slipware ceramics have been unearthed in large quantities at archaeological sites around Philadelphia, most recently, at  the site of the future Museum of the American Revolution at the corner of 3rd and Chesnut Streets in Old City. What is known as the Philadelphia style was a mixing of two European traditions of slip decoration brought across the Atlantic with the earliest settlers: first English and then German. While many of the slip trailed designs appear similar, they vary in simple ways...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle D. Graham.

This research assesses the degree to which the type, form, and function of 19th century ceramics recovered from archaeological sites on Ballast Point reflect ethnic identities of their owners. A dualistic approach is employed to determine whether culture or economy played a greater role in influencing the acquisition of ceramic goods at these sites. Comparisons are drawn from contemporaneous deposits associated with a Chinese fishing camp (Trench 2), and a European American whaling operation...