Possible Maker's Mark On Newly Discovered 18th Century Charlestown, Ma Redware Jar

While at Dish Camp in Eastfield Village, New York two weeks ago - I was introduced to the book, "Handcraft to Industry: Philadelphia Ceramics in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century." Susan H. Myers authored the book in 1980 through limited publication at the Smithsonian Institution Press. I felt a need to add the book to my library - so as soon as I got home - I went online, searched and found a copy. It's an important book that describes much of the ceramics found archaeologically at Independence Park and the early nineteenth-century potters that were both short-lived and long-lived - and equally important to the city's early ceramic industry.

The introduction to the book shares an important view in which the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ceramic industry transitioned from the eighteenth to nineteenth-centuries - from a small shop and experimental city to an American innovator. The Charlestown, Massachusetts industry did the complete opposite - transitioning from what once was a prosperous ceramic community to a lesser known ceramic identity in the nineteenth-century.

"In the first half of the nineteenth century, urban American manufacturing underwent a series of changes that transformed many traditional handcrafts into industries. Small family workshops were replaced by factories, hand processes were superseded by mechanized techniques, and semiskilled workers intruded upon highly skilled traditional labor force...American ceramics generally have been studied either by collectors interested primarily in the most beautiful or unusual items...Emphasis has been placed heavily on the aesthetic merit, focusing attention either on the folk art qualities of traditional household pottery or the stylistic elements of more sophisticated refined ceramics...Strictly utilitarian ceramics have been largely ignored and consequently little is known about a very important part of the potter's output." (Handcraft to Industry: Philadelphia Ceramics in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century - Susan H. Myers, 1980)

My studies of the Charlestown, Massachusetts archeology collection have provided me the benefit of knowing the characteristics of redware and stoneware produced by the potters of this area. I doubt much has survived, but I have been fortunate to discover three previously unknown examples over the past two months. Each was utilitarian in manner, but very important to the study of early American ceramics.

I am not going to show the actual form at this time, however, I will share the maker's make that was prominently displayed where many nineteenth-century stoneware potters would have placed a company or maker's stamp. It should also be mentioned that some early eighteenth-century American potters are known to have stamped their work. This is not a stamp, but it was certainly done intentionally. It was not by chance. The "X" was incised and placed in an area that stood prominently for all to notice.

Charlestown Redware Jar - Marked with an "X"

Circa 1750

The jar's provenance is extremely strong with legitimate ties to an export industry that once existed between Charlestown and additional coastal New England communities. The "X" was certainly intentional - there's no mistaking that. But what was its meaning? Was it a maker's mark? An export mark? The jar is exact in form to the wares that were produced of this utilitarian nature in eighteenth-century Charlestown. The expected heavy weight is correct. What could this mark's meaning be? There were no potters working in the area who had an "X" in their first or last name. There must be a meaning surrounding it. But what?

I plan to look more closely at the Charlestown collection for fragments that may resemble an "X." This is an instance - with as large as the Charlestown collection is - questions are still raised as to whether the study sample is large enough to account for all the work produced by nearly forty early potters of this colonial town.

Any thoughts? I have not seen a whole mark in the Charlestown archaeological collection, but the odds of finding an example with such a mark broken perfectly in a manner that preserved an "X" would be unlikely. There has to be a meaning. Any ideas? Comments? I plan to do much more research, but I felt a need to share in case anyone has seen a similar mark in other areas of redware excavated at eighteenth-century American archaeological sites...especially potters sites. Has a similar mark been seen in Philadelphia, New York or Virginia?

Any feedback would be great!

More ceramics and research to come...