Part 3

Since 1954 Robert A. Elder, Jr., assistant curator of ethnology at the United States National Museum, has been investigating the site on the Chesapeake Bay of a plantation or small settlement known as Angelica Knoll. This investigation has revealed a generous variety of gravel-tempered utensil forms, including both 17th and 18th century styles. The range of associated artifacts points to a site dating from the late 17th century to about 1765.

KENT ISLAND, QUEEN ANNE COUNTY, MARYLAND.

A small collection of late 17th-century and early 18th-century material--gathered by Richard H. Stearns near the shore of Kent Island, a quarter-mile south of Kent Island Landing--includes both North Devon types. The collection was given to the United States National Museum.

LEWES, SUSSEX COUNTY, DELAWARE: TOWNSEND SITE.

The Townsend site was excavated by members of the Sussex County Archeological Society in 1947. This was primarily an Indian site, but a pit or well contained European artifacts, including a North Devon gravel-tempered jar (fig. 25). The village of Lewes, originally the Dutch settlement of Zwaanandael, was destroyed by the British, who occupied the area in 1664.[66] The European materials from the Townsend site were given to the United States National Museum.

PLYMOUTH, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS: "R.M." SITE.

A site of a house believed to have been Robert Morton's, located south of the town of Plymouth, was excavated by Henry Hornblower II. It contained North Devon gravel-tempered sherds. The collection is now in the archeological laboratory of Plimoth Plantation, Inc., in Plymouth.

ROCKY NOOK, KINGSTON, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS: SITES OF JOHN HOWLAND HOUSE AND JOSEPH HOWLAND HOUSE.

The John Howland house was built between 1628 and 1630; it burned about 1675. The site was excavated between September 1937 and July 1938 under supervision of the late Sidney T. Strickland.[67] Several gravel-tempered utensil sherds were found here, as well as a piece of an oven (see fig. 26). Artifacts from this and the following site are at the Plimoth Plantation laboratory.

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.

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

Treatment: Inner surfaces of plates and bowls and outer surfaces of jugs, cups, mugs, chamber pots, and other utensils viewed on the exteriors are coated with white kaolin slip. Designs are scratched through the slip while wet and into the surface of the paste, exposing the latter. Undersides of plates and chargers are often scraped to make irregular flat areas of surface. Slip-covered portions are coated with amber glaze by sifting on powdered galena (lead sulphide). Containers which are slipped externally are glazed externally and internally. Slip and glaze do not cover lower portions of jugs, but run down unevenly.

Color: Slipped surfaces are white where exposed without glaze. Unglazed surfaces are a dull terra cotta. The glaze varies in tone from honey color to a dark greenish amber. When applied over the slip, the glaze ranges from lemon to a toneless brown-yellow, or, at best, a sparkling butter color. When applied directly over the paste and over the incised and abraided designs, the glaze appears as a rich mahogany brown or dark amber.

FORMS

Plates, platters, and chargers:

(a) Diameter 7"-7-1/2". Upper surface slipped, decorated, and glazed. (Fig. 12.)

(b) Diameter 12"; depth 2"-3". Upper surface slipped, decorated, and glazed. (Fig. 11.)

(c) Diameter 14-1/2"-15"; depth 2"-3". Upper surface slipped, decorated, and glazed. (Fig. 11.)

All have wide rims, but of varying widths, raised bezels, and heavy, raised, curved edges.

Baluster wine cups: Height 3-3/4"-4". Slipped and decorated externally; glazed internally and externally. (Figs. 12, 14.)

Concave-sided mugs: Height about 4". Slipped and decorated externally; glazed internally and externally. (Only complete specimen, at Jamestown, had incised band around rim.) (Fig. 14.)

Jugs: Height 6-1/2" and 8"-8-1/2". Globose bodies, vertical or slightly everted collars tooled in a series of ridged bands, with tooled rims at top. Some have pitcher lips, some do not. Slipped, decorated, and glazed externally above an incised line encircling the waist; glazed internally. (Figs. 13, 14.)

Eating bowls: Diameter, including handle, 9"-10"; depth 3-1/4"-4". Straight, everted sides, flat rims, with slightly raised edges, one small flat loop handle secured to rim. Slipped, decorated, and glazed internally and on rim.

Chamber pots: Height 5-1/2". Curving sides, terminating at heavy, raised, rounded band surmounted by concave, everted rim. Rim 1" wide and flat. Slipped, decorated, and glazed externally and internally. (Fig. 15.)

Candlestick: Unique specimen. Height 6". Bell-shaped base with flange and shaft above with socket at top. Handle from bottom of socket to bottom of shaft. Upper portion slipped, decorated, and glazed.

Ripple-edged, shallow dish: Unique specimen. Diameter 9-1/4". Concave, rimless dish or plate with edge crimped as for a pie or tart plate. Upper surface slipped, decorated, and glazed.

DECORATION

Technique: (1) Incising through wet slip into paste with pointed tool for linear effects. (2) Excising of small areas to reveal paste and to strengthen tonal qualities of designs. (3) Incising with multiple-pointed tools having three to five points, to draw multiple-lined stripes. (4) Stippling with same tools.

Motifs: The motifs are varied and never occur in any one combination more than once. There are two general categories of design, geometric and floral, although in some cases these are joined in the same specimen.

In the geometric category, the majority of plate rims are decorated with hastily drawn spirals and _guilloches_. The centers may have circles within squares, circles enclosing compass-drawn petals, circles within a series of swags embellished with lines. Triple-lined chevrons decorate the border of one plate. A chamber pot is decorated with diagonal stripes of multiple lines, between which wavy lines are punctuated by small excised rectangles. Some cups, jugs, and the candlestick are simply decorated with vertical stripes, between which are wavy lines, stippling, and excised blocks.

The floral category includes elaborate and intricate stylized floral and vine motifs: tulips, sunflowers, leaves, tendrils, hearts, four-petaled flowers. One plate (fig. 11) combines the geometric feeling of the first category with the floral qualities of the second in its swag-and-tassel rim and swagged band, which encloses a sunflower springing from a stalk between two leaves.

The design motifs are unique in comparison with those found on other English pottery of the 17th century. The geometrical patterns and spiral ornaments, which also occur in Hispanic majolica, have a Moorish flavor. Christian symbols--especially tulips, sunflowers, and hearts--are recurrent, as they are on contemporary West-of-England furniture, pewter, and embroidery and on the carved chests, and crewel work of Puritan New England. There is considerable reason to believe that there was a connection between North Devon sgraffito-ware manufacture and design on the one hand and the influx of Huguenot and Netherlands Protestant artisans into southern and southwestern England on the other. Low Country immigrant potters were responsible for two other ceramic innovations elsewhere in England--stoneware and majolica.

ATYPICAL SPECIMEN

Already mentioned is a large fragment of a dish found in a context not later than 1640 and cruder and simpler in treatment than the remainder of North Devon sgraffito ware thus far seen. It nevertheless belongs to the same class. Its paste has the same characteristics of color and fracture, while the firing has left the same tell-tale gray core found in a large proportion of North Devon sherds. Surface treatment techniques match those reflected in the typical dish sherds--glazed slip over the red paste on the interior; unglazed, scraped, and abraided surfaces on the underside. The yellow color is paler and the glazed surface is duller. The rim has a smaller edge and omits the heavy raised bezel usually occurring on the typical plates and chargers. The design motifs--crude and primitive in comparison with those described above--consist of a series of stripes on the rim, drawn at right angles to the edge with a four-pointed tool, and crude hook-like ornaments traced with the same tool in the bowl of the plate. This may be regarded as a forerunner of the developed sgraffito ware made in the second half of the 17th century.

UNIQUE FEATURE

The flat rim of a chamber pot from Jamestown (fig. 15) has "WR 16 .." scratched through the slip. It is probable that the initials indicate "William Rex," for William III, who became king in 1688. Why the king should be memorialized in such an undignified fashion could be explained by the fact that Barnstaple and Bideford were strongly Puritan and also Huguenot centers. Although William was a popular monarch, he was, nevertheless, head of the Church of England, and an anti-royalist, Calvinist potter might well have expressed an earthy contempt in this way. Later, in the 18th century, George III appears to have been treated with similar disrespect by Staffordshire potters, who made saltglazed chamber pots in the style of Rhenish Westerwald drinking jugs, flaunting "GR" emblems on the sides. Owners' initials or names do not occur on any of the North Devon wares found in American sites, nor do the initials of the potters. Otherwise, it would seem unlikely that the only exception would appear on the rim of a chamber pot.

COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE

Sherds owned by C. H. Brannam, Ltd., and excavated at the site of the Litchdon Street pottery in Barnstaple.--The largest of these is part of a deep dish (fig. 2). Its border design seems to be a degenerate form of a beetle-like device found on Portuguese majolica of the period. From a crude oval with a stippled line running the length of it, extends a spiral scroll, terminating in a heavy dot, reminiscent of the tendrils found on the Portuguese examples. From incised lines near the rim and on the edge of the bezel are small linear "hooks." The interior has sunflower petals flanking a short, stylized palmette, with another stalk and pair of leaves above, reaching up to what may have been an elaborate floral center, now missing. This decoration resembles closely the interiors of the floral-type plates and chargers found at Jamestown. A section of plate rim is similar to typical rims found in American sites. The surface color is the butter yellow found on the best Jamestown pieces. Paste color also matches.

Sherds from the North Walk pottery in Barnstaple, described by Charbonnier.--These were found near the site, on the banks of the Yeo and in a pasture. They include plates and dishes, some finished and others thrown out in the biscuit state. Charbonnier illustrates a plate with a zig-zag or chevron border and an incised bird in the center. The chevron appears on Jamestown specimens but the bird does not.

Harvest jugs.--18th-century North Devon harvest jugs examined by the writer display the same characteristics of paste, slip, and glaze as the Jamestown sherds. However, the jugs differ stylistically to a marked degree, suggesting that later potters were not affected by the influences that appear in the earlier work (fig. 16). The earliest harvest jug of which we are aware is a hitherto unrecorded example, dated 1698, that is in the collection of Charles G. Dorman. This is the only harvest jug yet encountered with a history of use in America and the only North Devon sgraffito piece known to have survived above ground on this continent. It is a remarkably vigorous pot, having a great rotund body, a high flaring collar, and a lengthy inscription (see fig. 17). A female figure under a wreath of pomegranates forms the central motif. The head is turned in left profile, with hair cascading to the shoulders. The bust is highly stylized in an oval shape, within which are intersecting curved lines forming areas decorated with diagonal incising or with rows of short dashes. The design here is strongly reminiscent of the geometrical decoration on Jamestown plates and deep dishes. A pair of unicorns flanks the central figure, and behind each unicorn are a dove and swan, at left and right respectively. Under these are sunflowers and tulips, while a tulip stands above rows of leaves on a stem below the handle. Feather-like leaves flank the lower attachment of the handle. At the junction of the shoulder and collar is a narrow band of incised tulips. Above this is a heavy ridge from which springs the flaring collar. Under the spout is a male head, wearing a wig which is depicted in the same manner as the pomegranates on the wreath, and a stylized hat and stock-like collar. One suspects that the man is a clergyman, although his eyes are cast down in a most worldly manner upon the lady below. He is flanked by a pair of doves; behind each dove is a vertical tulip with stem and leaves.

Some of the shading is applied with a four-pointed tool, as in many of the Jamestown pieces, although the tool was smaller. The handle bears the same characteristics as those on jugs found at Jamestown--the same carelessly formed ridge, the same spreading, up-thrust reinforcement at the base of the handle. Unlike the Jamestown jugs, this one is covered completely on the exterior with slip and glaze. However, since this was a presentation piece, we could expect more careful treatment than was usual on pots made for commercial sale.

The jug descended in a Sussex County, Delaware, family--on the distaff side, curiously. Family recollection traces its ownership back to the early 19th century, with an unsubstantiated legend that it was used by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. We may conclude at least that the jug is not a recent import and surmise that it was probably brought to America as an heirloom by an emigrating Devon family, perhaps before the Revolution. Sussex County has a stable population, mostly of old-stock English descent. It was settled during the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. There is a strong possibility, therefore, that the jug was introduced into Delaware at a comparatively early date.

Many other harvest jugs have been similarly cherished in England. An almost exact counterpart of the Delaware jug, and obviously by the same potter, is in the Glaisher collection in Cambridge. This jug, dated "1703/4,"[69] displays such variations as absence of the male head and a different inscription. Another jug, with a hunting scene but with a similar neck and collar treatment, seems again to be by the same hand; it is dated "1703."[70]

From the standpoint of identifying and dating the archeologically recovered sgraffito ware, these jugs are important in showing certain traits similar to those found in the sherds, while displaying other characteristics that are distinctly different. They support the archeological evidence that the Jamestown pieces are earlier than the jugs and that new design concepts were appearing by the turn of the century in a novel type of presentation piece.

NORTH DEVON PLAIN SLIP-COATED WARE

This is a plain variant of the sgraffito ware, differing only in the absence of decoration and in some of the forms.

Site: Jamestown.

FORMS

Plates: Diameter 7"-11-1/2". Profiles as in sgraffito plates. Upper surface slipped and glazed.

Eating bowls: Diameter 9"; height 3-1/2". Profile and handle same as in sgraffito bowls. Slipped and glazed on interior and over rim.

Porringers: Diameter 5-1/2"; height 2-3/4". Ogee profiles. Horizontal loop handle applied 3/4" below rim on each. Slipped and glazed on interiors. (Fig. 22.)

Drinking bowls: Diameter of rim, including handle, 5"; height 2-3/4"-3"; diameter of base 2". In shape of mazer bowl, these have narrow bases and straight sides terminating in raised tooled bands at the junctions with vertical or slightly inverted rims 1" in height. Each has a horizontal looped handle attached at bottom of rim. Slipped and glazed on interiors. (Fig. 22.)

Wavy-edge pans: Diameter 9"-10"; height 2". Flat round pans with vertical rims distorted in wide scallops or waves. Purpose not known. Slipped and glazed on interiors.

NORTH DEVON GRAVEL-TEMPERED WARE

Sites: Jamestown, Kecoughtan, Green Spring, Williamsburg, Marlborough, John Washington House, Kent Island, Angelica Knoll, Townsend, John Bowne House, "R. M.," Winslow, John Howland House.

PASTE

Manufacture: Wheel-turned, except ovens and rectangular pans, which are "draped" over molds. (See "Forms," below.)

Temper: Very coarse water-worn quartz and feldsparthic gravel up to one-half inch in length; also occasional sherds. Proportion of temper 15-25 percent, except in ovens, which were about 30 percent.

Texture: Poorly kneaded, bubbly, and porous, with temper poorly mixed. Temper particles easily rubbed out of matrix. Very irregular and angular cleavage because of coarse temper. Hard and resistant to blows, but crumbles at fracture when broken.

Color: Dull pinkish red to deep orange-red. Almost invariably gray at core, except in ovens.

Firing: Carelessly fired, with incomplete oxidation of paste.

SURFACE

Treatment: Glazed with powdered galena on interiors of containers, never externally. Glaze very carelessly applied, with much evidence of dripping, running, and unintentional spilling.

Texture: Very coarse and irregular, with gravel temper protruding.

Color: Unglazed surfaces range from bright terra cotta to reddish buff. Glazed surfaces on well-fired pieces are transparent yellow-green with frequent orange splotches. Overtired pieces become dark olive-amber, sometimes approaching black. Rare specimens have slipped interiors subsequently glazed, with similar butter-yellow color effect as in sgraffito and plain slip-coated types.

FORMS

All forms are not completely indicated, there being many rims not represented by complete or reconstructed pieces. The following are established forms.

Round, flat-bottomed pans: Diameter 16", height 4"; diameter 16", height 5"; diameter 18", height 4"; diameter 15", height 4-1/2"; diameter 13-1/4", height 4-3/8". Heavy rounded rims. Glazed internally below rims. These were probably milk pans, but may also have served for cooking and washing. Those lined with slip may have functioned as wash basins. (Figs. 18, 23.)

Round, flat-bottomed pans: Diameter approximately 19", height unknown. (No complete specimen.) Heavy rims, reinforced with applied strips of clay beneath external projection of rim. Reinforcement strips are secured with thumb impressions or square impressions made by end of flat tool. (Figs. 28, 29.)

Cooking pots: Diameter 12", height 6"; diameter 8", height 5". Curving sides, terminating at tooled concave band with flattened, slightly curving rim above. Glazed inside.

Bowls: Diameter 8", height 5". Sides curved, with flattened-curve rims, tooled bands below rims. Glazed internally. (Fig. 19.)

Cooking pots: Diameter (including handles) 9-1/2", height 6". Profile a segmented curve, with rim the same diameter as base. Exterior flange to receive cover. Small horizontal loop handles. Band of three incised lines around waist. (Fig. 18.)