entirely different technique from that described above. 

 I am inclined to doubt that these and their variants 

 were made at the Rogers factory and have termed 

 them products of the "rolled-rim" potter. Neverthe- 

 less, a few unglazed fragments of such pans (fig. 13, 

 nos. 2—4) are represented in the National Park Service 

 collections from uncertain archeological contexts in 

 Yorktown. 88 The fact that they are unglazed suggests 

 that they may have been made there, though un- 

 doubtedly not by the craftsman who threw the 

 flattened-rim creampans. 



Other earthenware sherds from the Digges House 

 group include small, folded-rim fragments which may 

 have come from storage jars or flowerpots. Another 

 fragment was sharply everted over a pronouncedly in- 

 curving body. This could have been part of a small 

 bowl or porringer. The Williamsburg archeological 

 collections include a number of bowls of this form, 

 one of which is illustrated in figure 16. A similar rim 

 form is present on a pair of lead-glazed funnels (fig. 

 17) from a mid- 18th-century context at the Coke 

 Garrett House in Williamsburg and on a presumed 

 funnel fragment (fig. 13, no. 5) in the Park Service 

 collection from Yorktown. 89 Also from Yorktown 

 comes the only known porringer fragment (fig. 13, 

 no. 6), a biscuit sherd with a flattened rim and traces 

 of the luting for a handle. 90 Although the type is not 

 represented among stratified finds from Yorktown, 

 mention must be made of an unglazed earthenware 

 water (?) bottle found in Williamsburg, 91 which is 

 clearly a stoneware form and thus probably was 

 made at the Yorktown factory (fig. 18). 



Perhaps the most baffling item listed in Rogers' 

 inventory was the reference to ''4 doz bird bottles 

 12 ", for it was hard to imagine that he would have 

 been making the small feeder bottles for cages which 

 were normally fashioned in glass. However, it now 

 seems reasonably certain that the Rogers bird bottles 

 were actually bird houses. Figure 19 illustrates two 

 bottle-shaped vessels of Virginia earthenware coated 

 with lead glazes identical in color to examples found 

 on a creampan and other presumably Rogers products 

 excavated in Yorktown. The example on the left 

 has lost its mouth but when complete was undoubtedly 



comparable to the specimen at right. The former 

 was found in 1935 during the demolition of a chimney 

 of the "Pyle House" at Green Spring near James- 

 town.''- It was mortared into the chimney twelve 

 feet above the ground with its broken mouth facing 

 out but with its base stopping short of the flue. The 

 bottle is now in the collection of the National Park 

 Service at Jamestown, and a recent examination 

 showed that it still contained a lens of washed soil 

 lying in the belly clearly indicating the position in 

 which it had been seated in the chimney brickwork. 

 A stick had been thrust through the wall before firing 

 and emerged on the inside at the same point that the 

 lens of dirt was resting. It was apparent, therefore, 

 that the hole was meant for drainage. The stick hole 

 was present in both bottles as also was an ante coc- 

 turam cut in the base (fig. 20) which removed almost 

 half of the bottom plus a vertical triangle. It is 

 believed that this feature was intended to enable the 

 bottles to be hooked over pintles or large nails which 

 latched into the V and prevented them from rolling. 

 In this way they could have been mounted under the 

 eaves of frame buildings as nesting boxes (or bottles) 

 and although firmly secure when hooked, they could 

 be easily lifted off for cleaning. Evidence of such 

 use is provided by slight chipping on the inner face 

 of the vertical V cut of the second bottle (right) where 

 the bottle had abraded against the nail or pintle. 



The date of the Green Spring bottle is uncertain, 

 though the paper label accompanying it says '■Prob- 

 ably 1720, date of building of house." However, it 

 is clear that the bottle was not installed in the intended 

 portable manner and it is possible that it was added 

 at a later date. The complete example (fig. 19, right) 

 was recently discovered in a sound archeological 

 context during excavations at the James Geddy House 

 in Williamsburg, being associated with a large refuse 

 deposit dating in the period about 1740-60. 93 



It may be noted that in the 1746 inventory of the 

 estate of John Burdett, tavern keeper of Williamsburg, 

 there are listed "16 bird Bottles 3/". 94 As it seems 

 unlikely that a tavern keeper would have a stock of 

 birdcage bottles when he apparently had no birdcage, 



88 N.P.S. Collection at Jamestown: Yorktown, no prove- 

 nance. 



S9 Bowl IC.1.18C, Funnels E.R. 140.27A, and National Park 

 Service collection at Jamestown: Yorktown, no provenance. 



»° National Park Service collection at Jamestown: Yorktown, 

 no provenance. 



»> E.R. 157A, C, and G, 27A. 



PAPER 54: THE "POOR POTTER" OF YORKTOWN 



« National Park Service collection, J. 13049 (G.S.), with 

 label reading "Pyle House Green Spring. Built into brickwork 

 of chimney — removed in securing brick for Lightfoot House 

 by C. ?T. (10. L" I. Mi- 

 ss Colonial Williamsburg archeological collections, E. R. 

 987D.19B, cat. 3275. 



9« "Inventory and Appraisement of estate of John Burdett," 

 York County Records, Book 20, Wills and Inventories, pp. 46^9. 



107 



