North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th CenturyWatkins, C. Malcolm
History
North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th Century
Watkins, C. Malcolm
Pottery -- Atlantic States; Pottery -- England -- Devon
The foundations of the Joseph Howland house, adjacent to the John Howland
house site, were excavated in 1959 by James Deetz, archeologist at Plimoth
Plantation. This is the only New England site of which we are aware that
has yielded North Devon sgraffito ware. Two successive houses apparently
stood on the site. Statistical evidence of pipe-stem-bore measurements
points to 1680-1710 as the first principal period of occupancy.[68]
MARSHFIELD, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS: WINSLOW SITE.
This site, excavated by Henry Hornblower II and tentatively dated
1635-1699, yielded considerable quantities of gravel-tempered ware.
Cultural material is predominantly from about 1675.
FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: THE JOHN BOWNE HOUSE.
The John Bowne House is a historic house museum at Bowne Street and Fox
Lane, Flushing, Long Island, maintained by the Bowne House Historical
Society. Bowne was a Quaker from Derbyshire, who built his house in 1661.
A North Devon oven is still in place, with its opening at the back of the
fireplace.
YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA.
The National Park Service has excavated at various locations in Yorktown,
both in the neighboring battlefield sites and the town itself. Yorktown,
like Marlborough, was established by the Act for Ports in 1691. In several
of the areas excavated, occasional sherds of North Devon gravel-tempered
ware were found. In refuse behind the site of the Swan Tavern, opened as
an inn in 1722 but probably occupied earlier, a single large fragment of a
15-inch sgraffito platter was discovered. No other pieces of this type
were found, associated artifacts having been predominantly from the 18th
century.
[Illustration: FIGURE 19.--Gravel-tempered bowl (top) and pipkins from
Jamestown. Colonial National Historical Park.]
Descriptions of Types
NORTH DEVON SGRAFFITO WARE
Sites: Jamestown, Kecoughtan, Green Spring, John Washington House, Kent
Island, Yorktown, Joseph Howland House.
PASTE
Manufacture: Wheel-turned, with templates used to shape collars of jugs
and to shape edges and sometimes ridges where plate rims join bezels.
Temper: Fine, almost microscopic, water-worn sand particles.
Texture: Fine, smooth, well-mixed, sharp, regular cleavage.
Color: Dull pinkish red, with gray core usual.
Firing: Two firings, one before glazing and one after. Usually incomplete
oxidation, shown by gray core. A few specimens have surface breaks or
flakings incurred in the firing and most show warping (suggesting that
"rejects," unsalable in England, were sent to the colonists, who had no
recourse but to accept them).
SURFACES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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