By C. Malcolm Watkins 



NORTH DEVON POTTERY 



AND ITS EXPORT TO AMERICA 



IN THE 17th CENTURY 



Recent excavations of ceramics at historic sites such 

 as Jamestoivn and Plymouth indicate that the seaboard 

 colonists of the 17th century enjoyed a higher degree of 

 comfort and more esthetic furnishings than heretofore 

 believed. In addition, these findings have given us 

 much new information about the interplay of trade and 

 culture betiveen the colonists and their mother country. 



This article represents the first ivork in the author' s 

 long-range study of ceramics used by the English 

 colonists in America. 



The Author: C. Malcohn Watkins is curator 

 of cultural history. United States National Museu?n, 

 Smithsonian Institution . 



POTTERY SHERDS FOUND ARCHEOLOGICALLV in 

 colonial sites serve a multiple purpose. They 

 help to date the sites; they reflect cultural and 

 economic levels in the areas of their use; and they 

 throw light on manufacture, trade, and distribution. 

 Satisfying; instances of these uses were revealed 

 with the discovery in 1935 of tw'o distinct but un- 

 identified pottery types in the excavations conducted 

 by the National Park Service at Jamestown, Mrginia, 

 and later elsewhere along the eastern seaboard. One 

 type was an elaborate and striking yellow sgraffito 

 ware, the other a coarse utilitarian kitchen ware 

 whose red paste was heavily tempered with a gross 

 water-worn gra\el or "grit." Included in the latter 

 class were the components of large earthen baking 

 ovens. Among the literally hundreds of thousands 

 of sherds uncovered at Jamestown between 1935 and 

 1956, these types occurred with relativelv high in- 



cidence. For a long time no relationship between 

 them was noted, yet their histories have proved to 

 be of one fabric, reflecting the activities of a 17th- 

 century English potterymaking center of unsuspected 

 magnitude. 



The sgraffito pottery is a red earthenware, coated 

 with a white slip through which designs have been 

 incised. An amber lead glaze imparts a golden 

 yellow to the slip-covered portions and a brownish 

 amber to the exposed red paste. The gravel-tempered 

 ware is made of a similar red-burning clay and is 

 remarkable for its lack of refinement, for the pebbly 

 texture caused by protruding bits of gravel, and for 

 the crude and careless manner in which the heavy 

 amber glaze was applied to interior surfaces. Once 

 seen, it is instantly recognizable and entirely distinct 

 from other known types of English or continental 

 pottery. A complete oven (fig. 10), now restored at 



P.^PER 13: NORTH DEVON POTTERY IN 17TH-CENTURY .AMERICA 



19 



