Figure 19. — Two earthenware "bird bottles" believed to be of Rogers' lead-glazed earthen- 

 ware showing drainage holes in sides. Bottle on left is from a house chimney near Green 

 Spring and, on right, is from the James Geddy House in Williamsburg. Height 18.42 centi- 

 meters, and 21.91 centimeters, respectively. 



it may be suggested that the reference is to bottles 

 similar to those discussed here. In support of this 

 conclusion, attention is drawn to the fact that Rogers' 

 new bottles were valued at 3d each, while Burdett's 

 (used ?) seven years later were appraised at 2, 1 4d. 95 

 It seems evident that the Rogers earthenware was 

 fired to biscuit, glazed, and fired again in a glost 

 oven; no other explanation accounts for the large 

 quantities of unglazed earthenware found at York- 

 town. Mr. Maloney's experiments at the Wil- 

 liamsburg Pottery have amply demonstrated that the 



115 Since this paper was written and the bird bottles identified, 

 i number of , idditicn.il fragments have been recognized among 

 mid-eighteenth-century finds from Williamsburg excavations, 

 including a small, pierced lug handle fitting the scar on the 

 Geddj example (fig I' 1 , right). The hole through the handle 

 lined up with that through the shoulder clearly indicating that 

 their combined purpose vs. is to provide an alternative method 

 of suspension for use when the bottles were hung in trees. 



Yorktown earthenware could have been glazed in the 

 green state and would not have required a second fir- 

 ing. Furthermore, the study of a late-1 7th-century 

 kiln site in James City County has confirmed that not 

 all potters thought it necessary to make glazing a 

 separate process. It is curious that the Rogers factory- 

 found it desirable to take this second and seemingly- 

 uneconomical step. The making of stoneware cer- 

 tainly would not have been a double-firing operation, 

 and, although some of the pieces actually are fired no 

 higher than the earthenware, they have been slipped 

 and salted. Consequently we must accept the bottle 

 discussed above as an intentional earthenware item 

 which had passed through only the first kiln. Further- 

 more, its presence in Williamsburg indicates that it 

 was never meant to be glazed. And finally, it should 

 be noted that an unglazed handle fragment, probably 

 from a similar bottle, was among the sherds recovered 

 from the roadwav in front of the Digges House. 



108 BULLETIN 249: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



