Mark Shapiro
Making a Commeraw Jar with Free-Standing Handles

Ceramics in America 2024

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    Mark Shapiro at his traditional treadle wheel with a six-and-a-half-pound ball of clay. (Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Eli Liebman.)

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Jar, Thomas Commeraw, New York, New York, ca. 1810. Salt-glazed stoneware. H. 12". (Private collection; photo courtesy Brandt Zipp, The Thomas Commeraw Project.)

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Reverse of the jar illustrated in figure 2.

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Detail of the handle on the jar illustrated in figure 2.

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Detail of 19th-century Potter’s Society ribbon. (Courtesy, New-York Historical Society.) The printing die used to make this image of the wheel on that ribbon was in the possession of the Crolius family.

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Centering the clay.

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Opening the clay ball.

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Raising the walls.

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Smoothing and shaping the walls with the flat side of a wooden rib.

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Profiling the foot detail with a rib.

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Profiling the transition between the body and neck. The half-round carved-out cross section of the rib was used to make the bead.

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    The finished jar is cut off the wheel head with a twisted wire.

  • Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Pulling a round cross section of clay to make the free-standing handles. (Historically, this could have been done by extruding clay contained in a rectangular box through a wooden die with a plunger.)

  • Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Equal lengths for symmetrical handles are cut and reserved.

  • Figure 15
    Figure 15

    Ends of handle are thickened by tapping with a finger.

  • Figure 16
    Figure 16

    The placement points of handle attachments on the pot are marked in slip (fine wet clay).

  • Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Slip is scored to provide a solid connection between parts.

  • Figure 18
    Figure 18

    One side of a handle is attached to the pot.

  • Figure 19
    Figure 19

    Second side of the handle is attached.

  • Figure 20
    Figure 20

    Second handle has been attached, and one side is worked upward toward the neck to form a period free-standing handle.

  • Figure 21
    Figure 21

    Second side is worked upward.

  • Figure 22
    Figure 22

    A small coil of clay is added as a backfill to thicken the attachment.

  • Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Backfill clay is smoothed in.

  • Figure 24
    Figure 24

    Stamping the lune part of the swag-and-tassel motif.

  • Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Stamping the tassels.

  • Figure 26
    Figure 26

    Stamping a bowknot on reverse.

  • Figure 27
    Figure 27

    Lunes, showing broken line on upper arcs. (Collection of the author.)

  • Figure 28
    Figure 28

    Stamps fabricated from bent and soldered copper and brass strips.

  • Figure 29
    Figure 29

    Mounted typography stamps.

  • Figure 30
    Figure 30

    Morgantown stamp in a chase. (Courtesy, Collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.)

  • Figure 31
    Figure 31

    Stamping typography.

  • Figure 32
    Figure 32

    Filling stamped motifs with cobalt. The cobalt here is in carbonate form; it fires to a strong blue.

  • Figure 33
    Figure 33

    Painting handle attachments.

  • Figure 34
    Figure 34

    Wadded bisque-fired jar. While the original went into the salt kiln in the green state and would have been heated slowly through the initial stages of the firing to prevent cracking and explosions, I did a preliminary firing to enable faster gaining of early heat. Note that the previously pink cobalt carbonate is now blue.

  • Figure 35
    Figure 35

    Jar loaded in the kiln. My kiln is a downdraft catenary arch with two fireboxes on the sides. Commeraw’s kiln was probably an updraft, with multiple roof openings and the firebox underneath the floor.

  • Figure 36
    Figure 36

    Finished jar.