Comparative Evidence 



Paste color, temper, and texture are consistent 

 when examined microscopically. Resemblance is 

 very close between oven sherds from the Jamestown 

 and Rowland house sites, and between these and a 

 large chip obtained from the Smithsonian's oven 

 purchased in Bideford. Except for a somewhat 

 lower proportion of temper, utensil sherds from 

 various sites are consistent with the oven fragments. 

 The Smithsonian's 19th-century Bideford pan also 

 closely resembles these, except for the proportion 

 of temper, which is somewhat less. Further close 

 resemblance of form exists between the Jamestown 

 and Flushing ovens and those in the Bideford Museum. 

 (Figs. 7, 9.)' 



In 1954 comparative tests were made by Frederick 

 H. Norton, professor of ceramics at Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology. Jamestown clay was used 

 for a control. Thin sections, made of sherds found 

 at Jamestown, were fired at several temperatures and 

 the results recorded in photomicrogi-aphs. Of the 

 gravel-tempered sherd submitted in these tests, 

 Professor Norton commented, "The clay mass looks 

 quite dissimilar from the Jamestown clay." 



No other identifiable English ware of this period 

 compares with the gravel-tempered pottery, the use 

 of gravel for temper apparently being restricted to 

 North Devon. Gravel is found in red earthenware 

 sherds from Spanish colonial sites and in olive oil 

 jars of Hispanic origin, but both the quality and 

 proportion of temper differs, as do the paste char- 

 acteristics, so that no possibility exists for confusion 

 between them and the North Devon ware. 



The North Devon potteries produced gravel- 

 tempered ovens that probably were unique in England. 

 Ceramic ovens were made elsewhere, to be sure; 

 Jewitt describes and illustrates an oven made in 

 Yearsley by the Yorkshire Wedgwoods in 1712, but 

 it is in no way related to the North Devon form. We 

 have mentioned Dr. Pococke's allusion to "earthen- 

 ware ovens" made in the mid-1 8th century at C'.alstock 

 on the Cornish side of the Devonshire border, about 

 35 miles from Bideford; however, one may suppose 

 that these were the products of diffusion from the 

 North Devon center, if, indeed, they even resembled 

 the North Devon ovens. 



The closest comparisons with the North Devon 

 ovens are to be found in Continental sources. A 

 woodcut in Ulrich von Richental's Concilium z" 

 Constancz (fig- 35), printed at Augsburg in 1483, shows 



an oven whose shape is similar to that of the James- 

 town specimen. The oven in the woodcut is mounted 

 on a two-wheeled cart drawn by two men. A woman 

 is removing a tart from the flame-licked opening 

 while a couple sits nearby at a table in front of a 

 shop. Le Moyne, a century later, depicted the 

 Huguenot Fort Caroline in Florida."' Just outside 

 the stockade, on a raised platform under a thatched 

 lean-to appears an oven whose form is similar to 

 that of typical North Devon examples (fig. 36). 

 It is a safe assumption that the ovens in both Richental's 

 and Le Moyne's scenes were ceramic ovens, for both 

 were used outdoors in a portable or temporary 

 manner. No other material would have been suit- 

 able for such use. 



This portable usage gives support to Bailey's con- 

 jecture that the Jamestown oven may have been 

 used indoors in the winter and outdoors in the sum- 

 mer. He noted that carbon had been ground into 

 the base, as though the oven had lain on a fireplace 

 hearth."- Sidney Strickland, writing about his ex- 

 cavation of the John Howland House site, noted that 

 the stone fireplace foundation there had no provision 

 for a built-in brick o\'en of conventional type."^ Not 

 having recognized the earthen oven sherd, he assumed 

 that bread was baked on the stone hearth. The 

 pottery oven may well have been placed on the 

 hearth or have been set up in an outbuilding. That 

 ovens of some sort, whether ceramic or brick, were 

 used away from houses is borne out by occasional 

 documentary evidence. In 1662 John Andrews of 

 Ipswich, Massachusetts, bequeathed a "bake house" 

 worth 2 pounds, f shillings. In 1673, Henry Short of 

 Newljury provided in his will that his widow should 

 have "free egress and regress into the Bakehouse for 

 bakeing & washing." In 1679 the inventory of Lt. 

 George Gardner's estate in Salem listed his "dwelling 

 house, bake house &l out housing." "' Bailey quotes 

 the records of Henrico County, Virginia, to show a 

 similar usage in the South. "^ 



'ij. Le Moync, Brevis \arraiio corum quae in Florida . . ., 

 Frankfort, 1591, pi. 10. 



■2 Bailey, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp. 497^98. 



"3 Strickland, op. cil. (footnote 67). 



" The probate records of Essex County, Massachusetts, 

 Salem, Massachusetts, 1916, vol. 1, p. 378; vol. 2, p. 

 vol. 3, p. 328. 



'^ Bailey, op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 498. 



346; 



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BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .^ND TECHNOLOGY 



