Part 24 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 20.--Base sherd from unglazed red-earthenware water cooler, with spigot hole. One-half. (USNM 59.2061.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 21.--Rim of an earthenware flowerpot, handle with thumb impressions attached. Slip-decorated, olive-amber lead glaze.

One-fourth. (USNM 60.203.)]

FOOTNOTES:

[173] WATKINS and NOeL HUME, op. cit. (footnote 54).

[174] C. MALCOLM WATKINS, ”North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th Century,” (paper 13 in _Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology: Papers 12-18_, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 225, by various authors; Was.h.i.+ngton: Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, 1963), 1960.

[175] The Russell site was excavated by members of the Suss.e.x Archeological Society of Lewes, Delaware. Artifacts from the site are now in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, as are those found by H. Geiger Omwake at the end of the Lewes and Rehoboth Ca.n.a.l.

[176] JOHN ELIOT HODGKINS, F.S.A., and EDITH HODGKINS, _Examples of Early English Pottery, Named, Dated, and Inscribed_ (London, 1897), p. 57, fig. 128.

[177] J. E. MESSHAM, B.A., and K. J. BARTON, ”The Buckley Potteries,” _Flints.h.i.+re Historical Society Publications_, vol. 16, pp. 31-87.

[178] GEORGE FRANCIS DOW, _The Arts and Crafts in New England, 1764-1775_ (Topsfield, Ma.s.s., 1927), pp. 84, 85, 92.

[179] MESSHAM and BARTON, loc. cit. (footnote 177).

STONEWARE

RHENISH STONEWARES.--The stoneware potters who worked in the vicinity of Grenzhausen in the Westerwald in a tributary of the Rhine Valley held a far-flung market until the mid-18th century. It was not until the Staffords.h.i.+re potters brought out their own salt-glazed whitewares that the colorful blue-and-gray German products suffered a decline. Before that, Rhenish stonewares were widely used in England and the colonies; those for the British market frequently were decorated with medallions in which the reigning English monarch's initial appeared. Elaborate incising and blue-cobalt coloring gave a highly decorative character to the ware, while salt thrown into the kiln during the firing combined with the clay to provide a hard, clean surface matched only by porcelain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 65.--BUCKLEY-TYPE HIGH-FIRED WARE with laminated body. Four pieces at top have predominantly red body, streaked with buff. All have black glaze, except two at lower right, which have amber glaze.]

John Mercer, like so many of his fellow colonials, owned Westerwald stoneware. From Ledger G, we know that in 1743 he bought ”2 blew & W^t Jugs 2/.” From the artifacts it is clear that he not only had large globose jugs, but also numerous cylindrical mugs and chamber pots. A small group of sherds has a gray-buff paste, more intricately incised than most. Internally the paste surface is a light-pinkish buff. These sherds are probably of the late 17th century, or at least earlier than the predominantly gray wares of the 18th century, which have hastily executed designs.[180] Only two ”GR” emblems (_Guglielmus_ or _Georgius Rex_), both from mugs, were recovered (fig. 66d).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 22.--Base of gray-brown, salt-glazed-stoneware ale mug. Rust-brown slip inside. Same size. (USNM 59.1780.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 23.--Stoneware jug fragment. Dull red with black dots. Same size. (USNM 59.1840.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 24.--Gray, salt-glazed-stoneware jar profile. Probably first quarter, 19th century. Same size. (USNM 59.1615.)]

MISCELLANEOUS GRAY-AND-BROWN SALT-GLAZED STONEWARE.--The shop of William Rogers apparently made stoneware of fine quality in the style of the London stoneware produced in the Thames-side potteries.[181] Wasters from Yorktown streets and foundations indicate many varieties of colors and glaze textures, some of which are matched in the Marlborough sherds.

Admittedly, it is not possible to distinguish with certainty the fragments of Yorktown stoneware from their English counterparts. Sherds of a pint mug, externally gray in the lower half and mottled-brown in the upper, may be a Yorktown product (USNM 59.1780, ill. 22). The interior is a rusty brown. Fragments of the shoulder of a very large jug, mottled-brown externally and lined in a dull red like that often found on Yorktown wasters, also have body resemblances. (Mercer bought a five-gallon ”stone bottle” from Charles d.i.c.k in 1745.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 66.--WESTERWALD STONEWARE: a, chamber-pot sherds and handle fragments; b, sherds having yellowish body, probably late 17th or early 18th century; c, sherds of curve-sided flagon; d, sherds of cylindrical mugs including one with ”GR” seal.]

There are numerous other types of coa.r.s.e stoneware of unknown origins, including one sherd with a dull-red glaze and black decorative spots (USNM 59.1840, ill. 23).

NOTTINGHAM-TYPE STONEWARE.--Several sherds of stoneware of the type usually ascribed to Nottingham appeared at Marlborough. This ware is characterized by a smooth, l.u.s.trous, metallic-brown glaze. The fragments are apparently from different vessels. One is a foot rim of a posset pot or jug. Several body sherds have fluting or paneling formed by molding, with turning lines on the interior showing that the molding was executed after the forms were shaped. One sherd is decorated with shredded clay applied before firing when the clay was wet. It appears to come from the globose portion of a small drinking jug with a vertical collar. A handle section comes from a pitcher or posset pot. Interior colors range from a brownish mustard to a reddish brown. Nottingham stoneware was made throughout the 18th century,[182] but these sherds correspond to middle-of-the-century forms (fig. 67a).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 67.--FINE ENGLISH STONEWARE: a, Nottingham type; b, ”drab” stoneware covered with white slip--brown-bordered mug sherds in _upper left_ came from beneath flagstone north of mansion-house porch, about 1725, ”scratch-blue” stoneware, _below_, is about 1750; c, ”degenerate scratch-blue” stoneware is about 1790; d, ”white salt-glaze”

ware _at bottom_ is hand-thrown; _upper right_ is molded, about 1760; e, plate and platter fragments.]

DRAB STONEWARE.--The dominant position attained by the Staffords.h.i.+re potters in the 18th century is due to unremitting efforts to achieve the whiteness of porcelain in their native products. Improvements in stoneware were mostly in this direction, with the first steps plainly evidencing what they failed to achieve. One of the earlier attempts has a gray body coated with white pipe-clay slip obtained at Bideford in North Devon. This slip created the superficial appearance of porcelain, as did tin enamel on the surface of delftware. Although some Burslem potters were making ”dipped white stoneware” by 1710,[183] it does not seem to have occurred generally until about 1725. Salt glaze was applied in the same manner as on the earlier and coa.r.s.er stonewares. Mugs in this ware were banded with an iron-oxide slip, presumably to cover up defects around the rims.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 68.--ENGLISH DELFTWARE: a, 17th- and early 18th-century sherds; b, blue-and-white sherd of the first half of the 18th century; c, polychrome fragments, third quarter of the 18th century; d, ointment pots with pink body, 18th century.]

Several sherds of this drab stoneware were found at Marlborough, including the base of a jug with curving sides and pieces of tall mugs with brown rims (USNM 59.1893, fig. 67b, ill. 25). The body is characteristically gray, while the slip, although sometimes dull white, is usually a pleasant cream tone. Two sherds were found beneath the flagstones around the north porch of Structure B, where they probably fell before 1746 (USNM 59.1754).