EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: A Wonderful 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Chamber Pot Recovered at the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island

Thursday, February 25, 2016

A Wonderful 18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Chamber Pot Recovered at the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island

I have been given permission by Parks Canada to publish a 1960s colored photograph of a slip decorated red earthenware chamber pot, which was recovered at the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. This pot was reportedly uncovered within a tight circa 1755-1760 archaeological context.

Its form and slip decoration matches another chamber pot (and, sherds), which was recovered in Charlestown, Massachusetts in the 1980s on behalf of the archaeology undertaken during Boston's infamous Big Dig Project. This chamber pot was made at the Charlestown potter's industry (circa 1630's-1775), which was home to multiple potter's businesses and dozens of potters before it was (somewhat) unexpectedly burned at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

Both of these chamber pots are believed to have been manufactured at the same potter's business in Charlestown during the same period. There is some evidence that suggests these chamber pots were made at the Parker family pottery; however, I am not one-hundred-percent certain of that claim since this style of decoration could have been manufactured at multiple potter's businesses in Charlestown. Although, there is evidence that the Parker Pottery did export red earthenware into Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the late-1740s and the 1750s, as well as other locations further north in Maine. This evidence can be found in John Parker's Charlestown potter's daybook, which is owned by the Baker Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The curved slip-decoratioin is believed to have been applied by a stamp; whereas, similar decorations can be found throughout the Charlestown Archaeology Collection, which vary in size.

I have always theorized that the potters in Charlestown were involved with an export business that catered to military forts and active maritime communities, which spanned New England and parts of Canada before the American Revolution. I believe the chamber pot that was recovered at the Fortress of Louisbourg is a very-strong example of that export business. There is also additional archaeological evidence in Maine and New Hampshire to support this claim, as well.

I have been told by archaeologists in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that "New England redware" is regularly found in Canada in eighteenth-century sites. I believe that some of what they describe as "New England redware" is actually red earthenware made in Charlestown, Massachusetts before 1775. This export business may also explain why Maine didn't see much local red earthenware production until after the American Revolution in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries.

I have shown a number of photographs below, which also include a double-handled lidded red earthenware pot that sold at a Tim Gould auction in Augusta, Maine in 2014. This pot is thought to be related to these chamber pots. It has a history of ownership in Winchester, Massachusetts, which is located only a few miles from Lexington, Concord and Charlestown, Massachusetts.

History of the Parker Pottery: The Parker Pottery was established by Isaac and Grace Parker around 1717 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. They produced a wide variety of red earthenware forms often decorated with slip. The Parkers were a prominent family in Charlestown owning a home on the waterfront with gardens, boats and a dock. They also owned a store in the center of Charlestown, which likely sold their pottery, as well as other goods. Their family business operated until the 1750s producing mostly red earthenware; although, they did reportedly experiment with stoneware production during the circa 1741-1745 period.

History of the Fortress of Louisbourg: According to the National Parks Services of Canada, "The original settlement was founded in 1713 by the French and developed over several decades into a thriving center for fishing and trade. Fortified against the threat of British invasion during the turbulent time of empire-building, Louisbourg was besieged twice before finally being destroyed in the 1760's. The site had laid untouched until the twentieth-century when archaeologists reconstructed the fortress as it was in the eighteenth-century."

Chamber Pot Recovered at the Fortress of Louisbourg