EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Bird Bottles From 18th Century Yorktown, Virginia and a Comparison to a Bird Bottle that Recently Appeared in Massachusetts

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Bird Bottles From 18th Century Yorktown, Virginia and a Comparison to a Bird Bottle that Recently Appeared in Massachusetts

An informative report was written by Norman F. Barka for the 2004 edition of 'Ceramics in America:' 'Archaeology of a Colonial Pottery Factory: The Kilns and Ceramics of the "Poor Potter' of Yorktown (Virginia).

According to the article, "The Discovery in 1966 of the "Poor Potter" manufacturing site in Yorktown, Virginia is one of the most significant industrial finds in historical archaeology...It appears that only one person, William Rogers, can definitely be associated with the Yorktown Pottery operation: he was a well-established businessman and entrepreneur in Yorktown during the early eighteenth-century...There is little question today that William Rogers was the "Poor Potter," but he probably was not a potter and he certainly was not poor...There is sufficient evidence to establish that he was the owner of one of the largest, most significant, and most successful pottery factories in colonial America...The "Poor Potter" factory produced large quantities of utilitarian pottery over a period of approximately twenty-five years (ca. 1720-1745). Both lead-glazed earthenwares and salt-glazed stonewares were made in a variety of shapes...Of tantamount importance is the evidence that William Rogers conducted America's first successful salt-glazed stoneware firings...He was an entrepreneur who also might have been a knowledgable potter. If not the potter, he hired experienced potters whose high level of expertise can be seen in the well-built kilns, factory design, and the size of the site, as well as in the products themselves, including finely made stonewares. Whether Rogers was a potter, an entrepreneur, or both, the politics of running a successful business in eighteenth-century Virginia required considerable skill."

The recovered artifacts from the Yorktown site were substantial, and the findings included red earthenware sherds from a form that I have always loved - the form is know as a "bird bottle," which is another term for a bird house. This form has also been reproduced by places such as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and by Massachusetts potter, Rick Hamelin.

18th Century Lead Glazed Earthenware Bird Bottle

William Rogers - Yorktown, VA

Ca. 1720-1745

Measures 8 1/2" Tall

Photo Courtesy: Department of Archaeological Research, Colonial Williamsburg - Williamsburg, VA

Additional Views of the William Rogers Bird Bottle

Photo Courtesy: Department of Archaeological Research, Colonial Williamsburg - Williamsburg, VA

This is where this story could potentially become exciting since I have never seen a nineteenth-century example before. However, that may have changed a few weeks ago when a Cape Cod antiques dealer was at a house-call at a huge estate in Barnstable, Massachusetts.

She found what appears to be a late-nineteenth or early-twentieth-century red earthenware bird bottle with manganese decoration splattered all-over it. Only the exterior is glazed. The form is also slightly different than the modern reproductions that I have seen. This form is more ovoid and it has a footed base like that seen on many traditional red earthenware jugs. The base also appears to have been entirely glazed.

The woman, who I bought this from told me that the estate was loaded with antiques. She said the bird bottle was found in the barn.

If this is a nineteenth-century object then my initial reaction would be to believe that it was possibly made in southeastern Massachusetts or on Cape Cod.