Washin2;ton house site), may date as early as 1664, 

 but may be as late as 1677 or a few years thereafter. 



The May-Hartwell oven was also found in the drain 

 fill, so presumably it also was used before 1695. The 

 oven fragment from the site of the John Rowland 

 house dates between about 1630 and about 1675, the 

 lifetime of the house. The oven in the Bowne House 

 is no earlier than 1664, the date of construction. 



Typical sgraffito ware, therefore, dates from 1664 

 to 1695, plus or minus a few years. Gravel-tempered 

 ware predominates in the same period, but extends 

 well into the 18th century, probably to about 1760. 

 Ovens date from between 1664 and 1695. The con- 

 centrations of wares within the limits of the May- 

 Hartwell drain site correspond roughly with records 

 of heavy shipments of the wares between 1681 and 

 1690. The earliest shipment recorded was to New 

 England in 1635. 



The sgraffito ware probably served as much for 

 decoration as for practical use. Each piece was 

 decorated differently, with elaborate designs, and in 

 such a manner that it could provide a colorful effect 

 on a court cupboard or a dresser, matching in style 

 the carved woodwork or crewel embroidery of late 

 17th-century furnishings. Although sgraffito ware 

 represented a degree of richness and dramatic color, 

 it did not match the elegance of contemporary 

 majolica, decorated after the manner of Chinese 

 porcelain. Heavy and coarse, the sgraffito ware 

 essentially was a variant of English folk pottery, 

 reflecting the less sophisticated tastes of rural West 

 of England. It did not occur in the colonies after 

 1700, by which time it was supplanted in public 

 taste by the more refined majolica. 



Gravel-tempered ware apparently was esteemed as 

 a kitchen ware, much as is the modern "ovenware" or 

 Pyrex in the contemporary home. Since gravel- 

 tempered ovens were widely used in the West of 



England, they were accepted by settlers in America, 

 especially where built-in brick ovens were lacking. 



Unlike those of StaflTordshire or Bristol, the North 

 Devon potteries failed to develop new techniques or 

 to change with shifts in taste. The delftware of 

 London and Bristol and the yellow wares of Bristol 

 and Staffordshire became preferable to the soft and 

 imperfect sgraffito ware. In the same way, the 

 kitchen ware of Staffordshire and the adequate red- 

 wares of .American potters made obsolete the heavy, 

 ugly, and incomparably crude gravel-tempered ware, 

 while American bricklayers, having adopted the 

 custom of building brick ovens into fireplaces, out- 

 moded the portable ovens from North Devon after 

 1700. Any chance of a renaissance of North Devon's 

 potteries was killed by the blockading of its ports in 

 the mid-1 8th century. From then on the potteries 

 continued traditionally, their markets gradually shrink- 

 ing at home in the face of modern production else- 

 where. Today, only Brannan's Litchdon Street 

 Pottery in Barnstaple has survived. 



Other References Consulted 



Bemrose, Geoffrey, .Kineteenth-Century English Pottery and 



Porcelain, New York, n.d. (about 1952). 

 Blacker, J. F., Nineteenth-Cenlury English Ceramic Art, 



London, 191 1 . 

 Chaffers, Wili.l\m, Marks and Monograms on Pottery and 



Porcelain, 14th issue, London, 1932. 

 Gribble, Joseph B., Memorials of Barnstaple. Barnstaple, 



1830. 

 Haggar, Reginald, English Country Pottery. London, 1950. 

 Honey, W. B., European Ceramic Art from the end of the Middle 



Ages to about 1815. London, n.d. (about 1952). 

 Mankowitz, Wolf, and H.-^ggar. Reginald G., The 



Concise Encyclopedia of English Pottery and Porcelain. 



London, 1957. 

 Meteyard, Eli^a, The Life uf Josiah Jt'edgwood, London, 



1865. 



P.\PER 13: NORTH DEVON POTTERY IN 17TH-CENTURY .\MERIC.\ 



59 



