House&Garden 
Vol.II JUNE, 1902 No. 6 
THE EARLIEST DECORATIVE POTTERY 
OE THE WHITE SETTLERS IN AMERICA 
BY EDWIN ATLEE BARBER 
Curator of the Pennsylvania Museum , Fairmount Park , Philadelphia 
T HK art of the potter is founded on the 
earliest industrial efforts of the human 
race, and consequently the artistic instinct 
first sought expression through the fruit of 
the kiln. Man’s primary care was to pro¬ 
cure the necessary means of subsistence, and 
when this had been assured he turned his 
attention to the improvement of his sur¬ 
roundings. It has been said that the history 
of nations is recorded in the development of 
their fictile products, and this statement is 
applicable not only to indigenous peoples 
but to those which have migrated to other 
lands, as well. 
Among the earlier settlers in Pennsylvania 
were the Palatines, who began to arrive from 
Germany and Switzerland toward the end of 
the seventeenth century. For nearly a hun¬ 
dred years, until the breaking-out of the 
Revolutionary war, they continued to come 
in increasing numbers. Many of them took 
up land in the Eastern counties of the State, 
particularly in Lancaster, Berks, Schuylkill, 
Lehigh, Montgomery and Bucks. T hey 
brought with them, among other things, a 
knowledge of the art of working in clay, 
and the artisans whose services were first in 
demand in this new country were the pot¬ 
ters. It is a curious fact, however, and one 
not easily explained, that the German pot¬ 
teries seem to have been confined almost 
entirely to two of these counties,— Mont¬ 
gomerys and Bucks. Here, for nearly a cen¬ 
tury and a half, one of the most remarkable 
phases of the potter’s art continued to thrive 
on the patronage derived from the neighbor¬ 
ing farms. 
For some years the people were absorbed 
in establishing themselves in their new sur¬ 
roundings. They erected unpretentious 
dwellings of wood and occasionally of stone, 
sufficient for their immediate needs, and they 
devoted themselves to the cultivation of 
their little farms. Their household furniture 
was of the most primitive sort and the sim¬ 
plest luxuries were practically unknown. 
They had but little intercourse with the out¬ 
side world, and the knowledge of the in¬ 
dustrial arts which they had brought with 
them from the Fatherland, so long dormant, 
at length began to bear fruit. Teachers of 
fractur —or black letter—sprang up in vari¬ 
ous parts of the community and the walls of 
their dwellings began to be brightened with 
illuminated certificates of birth and marriage 
and transcripts of hymns and scriptural pas¬ 
sages, quaintly embellished with paintings in 
brilliant colorings. A number of furnaces 
were erected, where iron stoves were manu¬ 
factured, with ornamental designs represent¬ 
ing incidents in sacred history, and at least 
one factory was established for the pro¬ 
duction of colored glassware of excellent 
quality. 
In the first attempts at interior decoration 
bv a hardy and struggling people, we may 
expect to find a bold and manly vigor of 
treatment rather than the refinement which 
is the direct result of long established pros¬ 
perity. The evolution of the artistic in¬ 
stinct, after the first awakening, is slow and 
gradual, but none the less certain. The 
worker in clav who has long employed his 
time in the production of the coarsest and 
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