Redware Colonial Wig Curlers

Since these specific artifacts from the Charlestown, Massachusetts collection received national attention through social media yesterday, I figure, now is the time to write a short blog post on this unexpected and relatively unusual colonial "redware" tool.

Wig curlers are suggested to be most common and abundant within the American archaeological sites that date between 1700 and 1780. Their popularity reportedly reached a height  during the reign of King George III around 1750. The use of wig curlers began to phase out around the turn of the nineteenth-century, however, this did not prove true with public figures, as some are known to have continued to wear wigs past this period. There are reports  that American public figures wore wigs as late as 1860. 

American Portrait, Man With Wig - 18th Century

Photo Courtesy: Skinner, Inc. - Boston

To briefly describe: the clay wig curler was reportedly heated and positioned towards the center point of the hair to retain the best possible curl. The following caption is from Massachusetts potter Rick Hamelin:

"I suspect that the clay would hold the heat and the moisture help to set the curl; Two sources of instructions, using a Baker's Oven or Newspaper! Ivor Noel Hume "A guide to Artifacts of Colonial America". Hume describes wrapping the wig hair around the curler in strips of damp paper, newspaper was sometimes used for this. The curl was secured to the wig curler with a piece of rag. The weight of the clay curler would pull the hair down over the section being curled. Curlers came in several sizes to allow for variation in size and tightness of the curls.Wigs were then baked after rolling to set the curl. Evidence of newsprint that was transferred onto the clay rollers in the baking process, has been recovered in archaeological excavations. Heat is the greatest aid to helping hair set in a curl. Pipe-clay curlers like these were made from the 17th–19th centuries and would be heated in an oven before use. Cane, boxwood and willow versions were produced from the late 18th century and had the advantage that they did not get so hot. To make permanent curls for wigs, the hair was wound around a clay curler steeped in boiling water and then heated. It was not unknown to take hair to the bakery where it was wrapped in brown paper inside a protective pastry crust and placed in the oven."

Source: Pitt Rivers Museum Body Arts | Wig curlers and hair tongs

The photo above illustrates the idea of the wig and curl. For the period, wigs were considered extremely fashionable and the need and desire for curlers was great. This demand in the colonies led to an industry of production and export from England and Europe.

American Portrait, Woman With Wig - 18th Century

Photo Courtesy: Skinner, Inc. - Boston

The average wig curler some-what resembles the shape of a dumbbell and most were made from a kaolin type clay - a clay also used for most pipes of the period. Kaolin clay pipes and curlers predominantly were made outside of America and were most available in urban maritime communities of the colonies.

Kaolin Wig Curlers - 18th Century, Likely English Made

Photo Courtesy: Old York Museums - York, Me

Kaolin Pipes Inside Gilt Stencil Decorated Mahogany Wall Pipe Box

Photo Courtesy: Skinner, Inc. - Boston

Yesterday, we came across two extremely unusual and definitely unexpected wig curlers at the Parker-Harris archaeological site, which is among the Charlestown collection. Like I said, the typical period wig curler is kaolin made and more often than not, imported from England or continental Europe. It is very rare to find a curler made from red clay, but that's just what we came across when searching through a group of boxes.

Redware Wig Curlers Found at Parker-Harris Pottery Site in Charlestown, Ma

Made Before 1775

While tests are still ongoing to accurately determine origin and attribution for all of the redware artifacts excavated within the Charlestown collection, I will explain there is the potential these wig curlers were made at the Parker pottery in Charlestown around 1750. Grace Parker or her son, John Parker very-well may have been the manufacturer. This will all be determined in time, but for now, the redware wig curlers can be admired for what they are, and that being a rare and extremely uncommon artifact from colonial Charlestown.

This development should prove fascinating if in-fact these were manufactured in Charlestown. If proven true, who is to say that redware wig curlers were not a part of most potters production of the period. Wig curlers may have been produced in most urban pottery communities such as Philadelphia, New York City, Boston and Charlestown. It would be extremely useful to hear if there are additional period redware curler examples found at similar colonial archaeological sites across America.

When compared to other redware forms of the period, there was not a lot of skill required to manufacture curlers. I came up with the theory yesterday that these may have been made from end of the day, left over clay. Arguably, it makes sense.

I won't get into the details, but the differences between the eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century redware potter is great. Their was a change within the production approach of utilitarian wares and this continued to progress until the height of art pottery and the arts and crafts movement of the twentieth-century was reached. It was all a form of the potters progression and it is all equally fascinating.

Like the wig curler, not all pipes of the period were imported. There are reports of redware clay pipes within the colonies that leads me to believe a domestic manufacturer is likely. This is all a part of my ongoing research and both the pipes and wig curlers will be a part of my future publications.

For now, the idea of the colonial domestic redware wig curler and pipe is exciting! Let me add that white clay wig curlers have also been excavated at the Faneuil Hall site in Boston and at eighteenth-century sites in Philadelphia.

More research to come...