The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia Part 24

[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).

One of the Burslem stoneware potters between 1710 and 1715 made what he called "freckled ware."[184] Possibly this describes a sherd of a thin-walled mug from Marlborough (USNM 59.1636) which is coated with white slip inside and is finely speckled, or "freckled," in brown on the outside. Its body is the gray of the drab stoneware, but with a high content of micaceous and siliceous sand. Simeon Shaw, the early 19th-century historian of the Staffords.h.i.+re potteries, a.s.serted that what he called "Crouch" ware was first made of brick clay and fine sand in 1690, and by 1702 of dark-gray clay and sand.[185] Although his dates are questioned by modern authorities, his order of the progressive degrees of refinement in the paste are acceptable as he suggests them.

In respect to the Marlborough sherd, although it is coa.r.s.er than the white-coated fragments described above, it answers very well Shaw's description of sandy-gray "Crouch" ware.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 25.--Drab-stoneware mug fragment, rim coated with iron oxide. Staffords.h.i.+re, 1720-30. Same size. (USNM 59.1893.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 26.--Wheel-turned cover of white, salt-glazed teapot. Staffords.h.i.+re. Same size. (USNM 59.1622.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 27.--Body sherds of molded, white salt-glazed-ware pitcher or milk jug. Staffords.h.i.+re. Same size. (USNM 59.1894.)]

WHITE SALT-GLAZED WARE.--About 1720 calcined flints were added to the body of the Staffords.h.i.+re stoneware, thus making possible a h.o.m.ogeneous white body that did not require a coating of slip between the body and the glazed surface.[186] With this ware the Staffords.h.i.+re potters came closer to their goal of emulating porcelain.

At Marlborough the earliest examples of this improved ware are found in two sherds with incised decorations that were scratched into the wet clay (USNM 59.1819, Fig. 67b); the incised lines next were filled with powdered cobalt before firing. This technique is known as "scratch blue," dated examples of which, existing elsewhere, range from 1724 to 1767. The body in the Marlborough specimens is still rather drab, the whiteness of the later ware not yet having been achieved. No slip was used, however, so that the surface color is a pleasant pale gray. One sherd is from a cup with a slightly flaring rim. The exterior decoration is in the form of floral sprigs, while the inside has a row of double-scalloped lines below the rim. The other fragment is from a saucer. Possibly the cup is part of Mercer's purchase in 1742 of a dozen "Stone Coffee cups," for which he paid 18d. In Boston "White stone Tea-Cups and Saucers" were advertised in 1745, and "blue and white ...

Stone Ware" in 1751.[187]

A later variant on the "scratch blue" is a cla.s.s of salt-glazed ware that resembles Westerwald stoneware. Here loops, sworls, and horizontal grooves are scratched into the paste. The cobalt is smeared more or less at random, some of it lying on the surface, some running into the incised channels. This style of decoration was applied mostly to chamber pots but also to small bowls and cups. Fragments of all these forms occurred at Marlborough (fig. 67c).

After 1740 the body was greatly improved, resulting in an attractive whiteware. Many wheel-turned forms were produced, and these were liberally represented at Marlborough in fragments of pitchers, mugs, teapots, teacups, bowls, posset pots, and casters (fig. 67d).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 69.--DELFT PLATE. Lambeth, about 1720. (See ill.

29.)]

In the middle of the 18th century a process was developed for making multiple plaster-of-paris molds from bra.s.s or alabaster matrices[188]

and then casting plates and other vessels in them by pouring in the stoneware clay, diluted in the form of slip. The slip was allowed to dry, and the formed utensil was removed for firing. This molded salt-glazed ware occurs in quant.i.ty in the Marlborough finds, suggesting that there were large sets of it. One design predominates in plates, platters, and soup dishes: wavy edges, borders consisting of panels of diagonal lattices--with stars or dots within the lattices framed in rococo scrolls, and areas of basket-weave designs between the panels. On a large platter rim the lattice-work is plain, somewhat reminiscent of so-called Chinese Chippendale design. The pattern is presumably the design referred to in the _Boston News Letter_ for May 29, 1764: "To be sold very cheap. Two or three Crates of white Stone Ware, consisting chiefly of the new fas.h.i.+oned basket Plates and Oblong Dishes."[189] One fragment comes from a cake plate with this border design and a heavily decorated center (fig. 67e).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 70.--DELFT PLATE. Probably Lambeth, about 1730 to 1740. (See ill. 30.)]

Other molded patterns include gadrooning combined with scalloping on a plate-rim sherd. A rim section with molded rococo-scrolled edge is from a "basket weave" sauceboat. Considerably earlier are pieces of a pitcher or milk jug with a sh.e.l.l design (USNM 59.1894, ill. 27). One rare sherd appears to come from a rectangular teapot or tray. All the white salt-glazed ware from Marlborough represents the serviceable but decorative tableware of everyday use. It must have been purchased during the last 10 years of Mercer's life.

TIN-ENAMELED EARTHENWARE.--The art of glazing earthenware with opaque tin oxide and decorating it with colorful designs was an Islamic innovation which spread throughout the Mediterranean and northward to Holland and England. Practiced in England before the close of the 16th century, it became in the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries a significant source of English tableware, both at home and in America.

Because of its close similarity to the Dutch majolica of Delft, the English version was popularly called "delftware," even though made in London, Bristol, or Liverpool.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 28.--English-delftware washbowl sherd.

Blue-dash decoration inside. See figure 68b. Same size. (USNM 60.75.)]

Surprisingly, a minimum of tin-enameled wares was found at Marlborough, with several sherds reflecting the Port Town period. One of the latter shows the lower portion of a heavy, dark-blue floral spray, growing up, apparently, from a flowerpot. A section of foot rim and the contour of the sherd show that this was a 17th-century charger, probably dating from about 1680 (USNM 60.177, fig. 68a). The leaves are painted in the same manner as on a Lambeth fuddling cup.[190] A section of a plate with no foot rim includes an inner border which encircles the central panel design. It consists of two parallel lines with flattened spirals joined in a series between the lines. The glaze is crackled. This probably dates from the same period as the preceding sherd (USNM 60.99, fig.

68a). Sherds from a larger specimen, without decoration, have the same crackled enamel (USNM 59.2059). There is also a fragment decorated with small, blue, fernlike fronds, again suggesting late 17th-century origin (USNM 59.1756, fig. 68a). A small handle, the glaze of which has a pinkish cast, is decorated with blue dashes, and probably was part of a late 17th-century cup (USNM 59.1730, fig. 68a).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 29.--English delftware plate. One-half. See figure 69. (USNM 59.1707.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 30.--English delftware plate. One-half. See figure 70. (USNM 59.1706.)]

Several fragments of narrow rims from plates with blue bands probably date from the first quarter of the 18th century. A reconstructed plate with the simplest of stylized decoration was made at Lambeth about 1720 (USNM 59.1707, fig. 69). This plate has a wavy vine motif around its upward-flaring rim, in which blossoms are suggested by stylized pyramids of three to four blocks formed by brush strokes about 1/4-inch wide, alternating with single blocks. The central motif consists of two crossed stems with a pyramid at each end and two diagonal, block brush strokes intersecting the crossed stems. A large fragment of a washstand bowl also has similar plain, block brush strokes along a border defined by horizontal lines--in this case a triplet of three strokes, one above two, alternating with a single block. Edges of similar brush strokes on the lower portion of the bowl remain on the fragment. Garner shows a Lambeth mug embodying this style of decoration combined with a suggestion of Chinoiserie around the waist. He ascribes to it a date of "about 1700," although the block-brush-stroke device, with variations, was practiced until the 1760's at Lambeth.[191] The Marlborough bowl fragment may be from one of the "2 pottle Basons" bought by Mercer in 1744 (fig. 68b, ill. 28).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 31.--Delftware ointment pot. Bluish-white tin-enamel glaze. One-half. (USNM 59.1842.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ill.u.s.tration 32.--Sherds of black basaltes ware. Same size. (USNM 59.2021.)]