COLONIAL POTTERY

Delft - Imported From Holland or England

COLONIAL POTTERY

Growing up in a military family and surrounded by housewares from all over the world, I was intrigued with our collection of Asian and European china and pottery. My favorite place in a department store was the china department, where I’d wander the isles studying and admiring the hundreds of different patterns, some new and some historic.

Fascinated by the colonial period, I discovered some interesting information about the pottery our American ancestors were using for practical as well as decorative purposes.

As I began studying the origins of pottery and ceramics in America, I discovered there is some evidence that various Native Americans made and used pottery before Europeans inhabited what is now the United States. Not surprisingly, more than one state takes credit for being the location where the first American pottery was made. Whether it is Georgia, Virginia, or New England, one common thread was that colonists began making pottery around 1730. Not to minimize the potters of different locales, here’s what I learned of Virginia’s “Poor Potter”.

The "Poor Potter" of Yorktown Factory

One normally associates Yorktown, Virginia with the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, or the 1862 Peninsula Campaign during the American Civil War. However, it also claims to be the site of America’s first pottery factory built in the early eighteenth century. Making pottery was no easy feat as colonials were prohibited from manufacturing domestic products in order to protect British commercial interests. Colonials were restricted to providing only the raw materials to be shipped to and manufactured in England. The completed wares would then be sold back to the colonists, with a surcharge for transportation back and forth going to the East India Company. How William Rogers had the approval of Virginia’s royal governor to make pottery is unknown. But, from 1732 to 1745, Lt. Governor Sir William Gooch, in official reports to the Lord’s of the Board of Trade regarding Yorktown potter William Rogers, the implication was made that the “poor potter” was no threat to British trade.

Inside the Yorktown Factory

Rogers, a businessman and not a potter, was the owner of the expanding operation which was producing large amounts of earthenware and stoneware to supply the needs of the colonists. Archaeological remains revealed that the large enterprise included two pottery kilns and a large work area which would have been manned by a large staff that made two dozen different kinds of earthenware and stoneware products. The quality of Roger’s pottery was thought to be equal to that of British potters. Some of his salt-glazed stoneware unearthed ranged from chamber pots, kitchen and tableware, to storage jars.

Redware with Designs

Here are some pictures of what was commonly found in the colonies.

Redware Porringer

Blue & Grey Salt Glaze