XV 



CcFdniiiw 



Most of the ceramic artifacts found at Marll)orough 

 can be dated within Jolin Mercer's period of occu- 

 pancy (1726-1768). A meager scattering of late 

 18th- and early 19th-ccntur\' whitewares and stone- 

 wares reflects the John Francis Mercer and Cooke 

 ownerships (1768-1819). 



COARSE EARTHENWARE 



Tidewater TYPE. — Mercer's purchase in 1725 of £12 

 3s. 6d. worth of earthenware from William Rogers 

 (p. 16, footnote 54) probably was made for trading 

 purposes, Judging from the sizable cost. Rogers oper- 

 ated a stoneware and earthenware potteiy in York- 

 town, which evidently was continued for a considerable 

 time after his death in 1739.'^ An abundance of 

 waster sherds (unglazed, underfired. overtired, or 

 misshapen fragments cast aside by the potter), sup- 

 posedly from Rogers' output, has been found as street 

 ballast and fill in Yorktown and its environs. Micro- 

 scopic and stylistic comparison with these sherds 

 relates numerous Marlborough sherds to them in 

 vai-\ini; degrees, [-"or purposes of tentative identifica- 

 tion, the ware will l)e designated "Tidewater type." 

 Some of the ware may have been produced in Rogers' 

 shop, while other articles resembling the Yorktown 

 products may have been made of similar clay and fired 

 under conditions comparable to those at Yorktown. 

 A Marlboniugh milk pan (ISNM 59.hlhl. ill. 11. 

 and ISNM 59.1580) has a salmon-colored Inxly and 

 .1 lustrous mahogany glaze with fine niangdnev 

 streaking. Another milk pan (LSNM 59.2039. ill. -' 



'^ VVatkin.* and NoKl Hfur, op. cil. (footnote 54 V 



tig. b3a) has a buff Ixxiy and a glazr of uneven thick- 

 ness that ranges in color from thin bnjwn with black 

 llecking to a glutinous dark brown approachini; lilack. 

 The nu)St typical glaze color, influrv-' '■' the un- 

 derlying predominant pinkLsh-buff .i lii;ht 

 mahogany with black specks or blotches. 1 1 occurs at 

 Marlborough on a small sherd (LSNM ()0.20l ». A 

 variant glaze occurring on pottery found in Yorktown 

 appeai-s here in a yellowish-bufT sherd flecked with 

 i)lack (LS.NM 60.154). The flecking i.s only in part 

 .ipplied with manganese; it is also the effect of 

 ocherous and ferruginous particles which ; 

 throuijh the surface of the body, .i-~'i"'i'" ..v, 

 coloi-. Occasionally the nianganesc i- llv. 

 so that the natural IkkIv color ^ 

 flecks in a reverse effect (L'.SN.M 

 then the vessel is uniformly black (I 



Tidewater-type fornjs found at ^ 

 elude milk paius 15 inches in diamrti . , 

 inches deep (in 1720 Mercer ixnisht ". is" 



for 5d. and 5 "gallon 



?lazed jar coser wii: 



inches (USNM 59.2013), and fraKmcnts of other |Mt»» 

 and Ixjwis of ' ■* 



nnig has a i 



.59.2043, fig. 63d. ill 12). Its . 

 Mm i)F.i>-RiM ivrr. 1 

 a liijht-rcd Uxl> and i: 

 clazr. It is characterized bv a i 

 •i.)rni or > 

 \ 



with early 1 8th-cent«r>- mAiehals Ironi «iich »«ir» 



125 



