Figure 4. — Yorktown stoneware mug fragment 

 marred by kiln drippings lodged above the handle. 

 The fragment was found in Williamsburg. Height 

 of sherd 4 centimeters. 



this feature, it is clear that the potters used only a small 

 template which molded the base cordoning alone, a 

 technique in marked contrast to that of the German 

 Westerwald potters of the same period, whose mass- 

 produced tankards and chamberpots invariably ex- 

 hibit considerable "chattering." Shaping the lip of 

 the Yorktown tankards appears to have been accom- 

 plished entirely by hand as was the application of the 

 encircling groove below it. Because the clay used 

 in the manufacture of these brown stonewares is 

 relatively coarse, it does not lend itself readily to the 

 thin potting so characteristic of English white salt- 

 glaze or the refined Nottingham and Burslem brown 

 stonewares. Consequently, it was necessary to pare 

 down the mouths of the mugs to make them acceptable 

 to the lips of the toper. This interior tooling, extend- 

 ing about half an inch below the rim, is found on all 

 the Yorktown and English brown stonewares of this 

 class. The technique is the reverse of that used by 

 the Westerwald potters, whose mugs are thinned from 

 the outside, leaving the straight edge on the interior. 72 

 Having imbibed from both types of tankard, I believe 

 that the English (and Yorktown) technique is dis- 

 tinctly preferable. One's upper lip does most of the 

 work; the paring of the inside of the vessel shapes the 

 rim away from that lip and carries (he ale smoothl) 

 into the mouth. 



The treatment of the single-reeded handle on the 

 Challis site mug equals the best English examples, 

 being thin and of sufficient size to accommodate three 



fingers, with the top of its curve remaining below the 

 edge of the rim so that the thumb cannot slip over it. 

 In addition, the lower terminal is folded back on 

 itself and impressed. While it has often been said that 

 the signature of a potter is found in the shaping of his 

 rims and his handles, we must remember that in a 

 large commercial pottery the person who applies the 

 handles often is not the same workman as he who 

 throws the pot. This explains the considerable 

 variety among the handles of supposed Yorktown 

 tankards, some of them very skillfully fashioned and 

 applied, others appallingly crude. It is inconceivable 

 that all can be the work of a single craftsman. 



The iron-oxide slip into which the upper part of 

 the body and handle of the Challis site mug was 

 dipped provided the vessel with a pleasing purplish- 

 to-green mottling when struck by the salt, but, com- 

 pared to its English prototypes, the variations of 

 color and the unevenness of the size of the mottling 

 label it a product of inferior firing. Nevertheless, in 

 criticizing the Yorktown stoneware, we might remem- 

 ber Dr. Johnson's comment on women preachers, 



~- I. Noel Hume, Hrrt Lies Virginia (New York: Knopf, 196 I 

 fi ? . 55. 



figure 5. — Yorktown stoneware mug, found in 

 James City Counts, which was discarded about 

 I 7 ill. Height 12.5 centimeters; capacity 17 fluid 

 ounces. 



94 



BULLETIN 249: CONTRIBUTIONS |Ro\[ THE .MUSEUM OK HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



