Al Luckenbach and John E. Kille
Ceramic Treasures in Seventeenth-Century Trash: A 1660s Cellar Deposit

Ceramics in America 2011

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    Providence settlement sites overlaid onto detail of Virginia and Maryland, map drawn by Augustine Herrmann in 1670 and published in 1673. (Private collection.) 

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Lost Towns Project archaeologists and volunteers conducting salvage excavations at Homewood’s Lot, 2002. (Photo, Shawn Sharpe, Lost Towns Project.) 

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Archaeological plan view map of Homewood’s Lot, 2004. (Courtesy, Lost Towns Project.)

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Archaeological profile of the cellar designated as Feature 30, Homewood’s Lot, 2002. (Photo, Al Luckenbach.)

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Chart comparing temporal ranges and percentages of belly bowl and trade pipe forms recovered from archaeological sites in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, including Homewood’s Lot (18AN871).

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Arent(?) Diepraem, A Peasant Seated Smoking, ca. 1650. Oil on oak. 11 1/4" x 9". (Courtesy, The National Gallery, London.) The decorative elements on a Rhenish jug seen in the foreground of this painting bear a remarkable similarity to the fragments below, which were recovered from the shoreline of St. Mary’s City, Maryland (right), and Feature 30, Homewood’s Lot (left). A date of 1646 is visible (at approximately 4:00) on the medallion found at St. Mary’s City. (Courtesy, Historic St. Mary’s City.)

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Detail of fragments of a colander similar to the one illustrated in fig. 8. The lead-glazed earthenware fragments are possibly Holland, ca. 1660s.

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Nicholas Maes, A Girl Plucking a Duck, 1634. Oil on canvas. 23 5/8" x 26". (Courtesy, Philadelphia Museum of Art.) The colander depicted in this painting provides a suitable comparison for an overlay of several fragments from a similar vessel recovered from Feature 30, Homewood’s Lot. 

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Handled cup fragments, England, ca. 1660. Manganese-enriched lead-glazed earthenware. (Photo, John E. Kille.)

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Chart comparing ceramic assemblages recovered from Burle’s Townland, Leavy Neck, and Homewood’s Lot sites, Providence, Maryland.

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Mid-drip candlestick fragment, probably England, 1660s. Tin-glazed earthenware. (Photo, John E. Kille.)

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Jan van der Heyden (1637–1712), Still Life with Books and a Globe, seventeenth century, Southern Netherlands (modern Belgium). Oil on panel. 8 15/16" x 10 5/8". (Courtesy, Philadelphia Museum of Art.) This painting includes a candlestick typical of the seventeenth century.

  • Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Candlestick, Southwark, probably Pickleherring, London, 1648. Tin-glazed earthenware. H. 10 3/16". (Courtesy, Victoria and Albert Museum.) This rare example is decorated with the arms of the Fishmongers’ Company and is inscribed “W / W / E / 1648.”

  • Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Handle and porringer fragments, probably England, ca. 1660s. Tin-glazed earthenware. D. of rim 5". (Photo, John E. Kille.)

  • Figure 15
    Figure 15

    Plate fragments, the Netherlands, ca. 1660s. Tin-glazed earthenware. D. 8 1/2". (Photo, John E. Kille.)

  • Figure 16
    Figure 16

    Drawing of a 17th-century tin-glazed earthenware plate attributed to Holland manufacture, illustrated in Sarah Jennings, Eighteen Centuries of Pottery from Norwich, East Anglian Archaeology Report No. 13 (Norwich, Eng.: Norwich Survey in collaboration with Norfolk Museums Service, 1981), p. 191.

  • Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Plate fragment, the Netherlands, ca. 1660s. Tin-glazed earthenware. (Photo, John E. Kille.) The extrapolated diameter of the plate is 8 1/2".

  • Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Bowl fragment, probably England, ca. 1660s. Tin-glazed earthenware. (Photo, John E. Kille.) The extrapolated diameter of the footring is 2 1/2".