Figure 20. — Bases of the '"bird bottles" depicted in figure 19. showing holes for suspension. 

 Base diameters: left, 10.48 centimeters; right, 10.16 centimeters. 



Conclusions 



The Rogers inventory contains such a wide variety 

 of forms that one may claim without fear of contradic- 

 tion that his factory was capable of producing any of 

 the kinds of kitchen vessels and general-purpose 

 containers that the colony may have required. 

 Consequently, a Yorktown origin may reasonably be 

 considered for any of the wares made from local 

 clay that turn up in contexts of the appropriate 

 period. In the Williamsburg collections are such 

 varied lead-glazed, earthenware items as closestool 

 pans, chamber pots, straight-sided dishes, lidded 

 storage jars, wide-mouthed and double-handled 

 storage bins, pipkins, and chafing dishes. Eut 

 whether all these things were made, in fact, at York- 

 town cannot be known until the factory site is 

 found and excavated. 



In the meantime, a few conclusions can be drawn on 

 the basis of the existing archeological evidence. 

 There can be no doubt that the Rogers factory at 

 Yorktown was a sizable operation and that it em- 

 ployed throwers as capable in their own field as any 

 in England. Our slender knowledge of Rogers' own 

 background does not indicate that he himself was a 



potter. It must be supposed, therefore, that he 

 obtained the services of at least a journeyman potter 

 apprenticed in one of the brown-stoneware factories 

 in England. One can only guess at the center in 

 which this unknown craftsman was trained, but it is 

 more than likely that he came from London and might 

 have worked at Fulhnm, '"' or more probably at 

 Southwark, or even, perhaps, at Lambeth, the types of 

 sagger and the wares produced at Yorktown being 

 stylistically identical to the fragments found on the 

 latter sites. 



Xot knowing the number of craftsmen employed, 

 we cannot hope to determine the size of Rogers' 

 output or the number of kilns in operation. But one 

 would suppose that he had at least two kilns, one for 

 stoneware and the other for lead-glazed earthenware, 

 although they could, conceivably, have been inter- 

 changeable. An indication that lead-glazed wares 

 were sometimes burned in the salt-glaze kiln is 



"" rhcre is a long-established belief that Fulham was the 

 principal source of 18th-century brown-stoneware wssels. 

 While the art of making the ware was first developed there 

 by John Dwight, the factory fell into decline after his death 

 in 1703 and remained in virtual oblivion until the l'lth century. 



PAPER 54: THE POOR POTTER OF YORKTOWN 



10') 



