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| Figure 38 Jar, Morgantown, West Virginia, ca. 1840–1854. Earthenware. H. 7 1/4". (Private collection; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) This cylindrical string-tie storage jar has an impressed geometric design created by a roulette that is now in the Smithsonian Institution. This same roulette was used in Morgantown’s stoneware period, which began in September 1854. They probably were made near the end of the earthenware period, since roulettes ?ourished in the early stoneware period. Competition from glassmakers—Albert Gallatin’s glass plant at nearby New Geneva, Pennsylvania, began production in 1807—may have forced potters to speed up production to cut costs. Roulette decoration could be completed in one quick rotation of the jar, whereas carefully placed daubs or strokes of slip involved more time and additional material. |