Handpainted blue tin-glaze earthenware tableware

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View Larger Handpainted blue tin-glaze earthenware tableware

Notes

This is a body fragment of a tin-glazed earthenware unidentified tableware. This ware is often referred to by archaeologists as delftware. The white coloration of the glaze was obtained by adding tin-oxide to a lead glaze. Against this white field, delft was most often decorated with hand painted cobalt blues. These wares mimicked more expensive Chinese export porcelain in both the white color of the glaze and the use of hand painted blue decoration. Ceramics such as these were produced in numerous locations in both Britain and Holland beginning in the seventeenth-century, though production continued through the end of the following century. Generally, delftware was supplanted as a fashionable ceramic for tea and tableware as the eighteenth century wore on, being replaced by both porcelains and newer British ceramics, such as white salt glazed stonewares and eventually refined earthenwares like creamware.

The small amount of curvature to fragment suggest the original vessel possibly had a larger circumference than a plate or dish.

Object Type

Ceramic Ceramic

Has it Been Conserved?

No

Where Was It Found?

Project Site: House for Families    [more details]

Material

Refined Earthenware

Vessel

Flat

Manufacturing Technology

Wheel Thrown

Form

Unid: Tableware

Completeness

Body

Decorative Technology

Painted, under free hand

Decorative Notes

Blue trellis band 14.

Date

1600-1775

Country of Origin

Indeterminate

Dimensions

35mm x 0.0000mm x 50mm (W x H x L)


Illustration shows object in comparison to the size of a quarter

Weight

5.9 gram(s)

Object Number

1722729. TG V.6

DAACS Number

1722729

Project: House for Families

The structure identified as the “House for Families” on the 1787 Vaughan plan likely housed the majority of the enslaved population living at the Mansion House Farm for much of the second half of the eighteenth century. The building was in existence from circa 1760 until it was demolished in late 1792 or early 1793. The archaeological evidence for the structure consisted of a brick-lined storage cellar (44FX762/40-47) measuring roughly six feet by six feet. Historically the cellar served as a handy trash receptacle once it ceased to be used for its original storage function, and through extensive excavation has yielded an extremely rich assemblage of household refuse. The analysis of these remains offers the opportunity to study important aspects of the daily lives of Mount Vernon's enslaved community.

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Mount Vernon's object research is ongoing and information about this object is subject to change. For information on image use and reproductions, click here.
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