A Circa 1630-1700 Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Sherd Recovered from Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Yesterday, I posted a story to this website showing some green glazed red earthenware sherds recovered from eighteenth century archaeological contexts at Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These sherds were likely from mugs, and were adorned with tooled ribbing, a technique popular with potters in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Charlestown, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, etc. before the American Revolution: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/05/an-eighteenth-century-green-glazed-red.html.

Nonetheless, this seventeenth century slip decorated red earthenware sherd was recovered by archaeologists in 2009 from a circa 1630-1700 archaeological context at Harvard Yard in Cambridge. The manufacturer is not identified, although there were English trained potters working in Charlestown and in parts of Essex County, Massachusetts (Gloucester, Salem, Salem Village, etc.)  during this period, as well as perhaps other coastal areas of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/593135?ctx=5c9768a15c24e14066a27456fe10f63583ed69fc&idx=1852

Interestingly, part of the decorative motif applied on this sherd is similar to slip techniques used on an earthenware chamber pot and a posset pot from Staffordshire, England, which were recovered by archaeologists from an eighteenth century privy at the site of the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown before the American Revolution (see below).

Note: Here is a story I posted to this website earlier this year showing how similar glaze colors were used at the circa 1687-1709 James Kettle (1664/65-1712) Pottery in Salem Village (Danvers), Massachusetts, when compared to some English earthenware production, although this was a type also produced in Charlestown in the seventeenth and eighteenth century: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/03/the-1687-1709-james-kettle-pottery-in.html.

Update: According to Boston City Archaeologist, Joe Bagley, "The curls and the raised slip looks like German wesser or werra wares, possibly Dutch. The English stuff tends to be less curly and the locals seemed to not be making much slipwares pre-1700 that I’ve been able to confirm"

A Circa 1630-1700 Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Sherd

17th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Sherd

Recovered from a Circa 1630-1700 Archaeological Conext

Found on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

18th century Slip Decorated Earthenware Chamber Pot Made in Staffordshire, England

Recovered from the Site of the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown, Mass.

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: City of Boston Archaeology Program

18th century Slip Decorated Earthenware Posset Pot Made in Staffordshire, England

Recovered from the Site of the Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown, Mass.

See Article for More Information

Photo Courtesy: City of Boston Archaeology Program

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