July 2018 – Artifact of the Month
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J.B. Who art thou? : An Unknown Potter’s Slipware Cup
Slip cups were used by potter’s to decorate ceramic vessels. They were filled with a white liquid clay the consistency of heavy cream. A controlled stream could them be poured from a small hole in the cup onto the surface of unfired clay vessel.
This cup was used by a local potter whose initials ‘J’ ‘B’ are incised in the bottom. This individual remains unidentified by researchers.
This slipware cup, and ones like it, were used to decorate the redwares abundantly produced by potters in early Philadelphia.
This item was 3D Scanned by Dr. Bernard Means of the Virtual Curation Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University. Click and drag on the image to rotate and view the slipware cup and to see the incised initials.
Learn more…
Redware archaeologists recovered from the Hillegas Pottery
Give me an R for Redware! (This Week in Pennsylvania Archaeology blogpost)
“Eighteenth-Century Redware Folk Terms and Vessel Forms: A Survey of Utilitarian Wares from Southeastern Pennsylvania”, by Patricia E. Gibble, Historical Archaeology Vol. 39, No. 2 (2005), pp. 33-62 (jstor access required: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25617247)
In the Philadelphia Style: The Pottery of Henry Piercy, by Barbara H. Magid and Bernard K. Means. Chipstone, Ceramics in America (Good background on Philadelphia redware history included.)
Long Buried Colonial Pottery to Make Its Modern Debut, NY Times coverage of artifacts recovered from the site of the Museum of the American Revolution.
A Survey of Traditional Pottery Manufacture in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, by Susan H. Myers. Historical Archaeology: Vol. 6 6, Article 2.
This artifact of the month feature was contributed by Jed Levin and Patrice L. Jeppson.
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