The Red Earthenware of New York City Uncovered Through Archaeology: Report No. 3

While driving around New York City last weekend, I thought about all of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth artifacts that were hidden beneath the city's endless amount of pavement. How many stories could these artifacts tell? How much evidence could they provide into unlocking secrets of the past?

I also recently visited the New York State Museum in Albany, New York for a brief introduction into how some of the recovered red earthenware in New York City appears. Historical accounts show there were small red earthenware businesses that existed in parts of the city as early as the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries; however those businesses soon disappeared and were possibly replaced by the manufacture of German-inspired stoneware by potters who migrated from continental Europe. Stoneware was often seen as a more efficient product to its American-made counterpart, red earthenware - so it is assumed that the need for red earthenware (which served a similar household need as stoneware) was not as great in New York City when compared to areas, where there was not as much stoneware production.

But despite this interpretation, I have always felt that there was still a need for red earthenware forms (i.e. bowls, plates, platters, porringers and such) in the city that were not traditionally made by the local stoneware potters.

These ensuing sherds were recovered in a late-eighteenth to early-nineteenth-century archaeological context in Manhattan, New York. They are thinly potted; whereas, the sherds appear to have been a part of a bowl of some-kind. The flared out rim seems like an attributable characteristic; although I do not have any specific suggestions.

What's really interesting about these sherds is the glaze, which reminds me of products made on Long Island and in Norwalk, Connecticut throughout the nineteenth-century. However, archaeology has also proven that Long Island red earthenware was exported into New York City in the 1800s - so there is a tendency to say that this is where these sherds may have originated.

Sherds Recoved in Manhattan, NY

Late-18th or Early-19th Century Red Earthenware Sherds Uncovered in Manhattan, NY

Possibly Imported from the Potter's Industry on Long Island

Exterior of Sherds
See Article for More Infomation

Photo Courtesy: New York State Museum - Albany, NY

Interior of Sherds

Photo Courtesy: New York State Museum - Albany, NY

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