North Devon

Defining Attributes

A green, yellow, or brown lead glazed coarse earthenware with a reddish pink to orange paste that has a gray core. Temper or decorative technique define the different types. North Devon gravel-tempered is characterized by its gravel temper, while North Devon sgraffito ware is identified by its incised slip decoration of brown motifs on a yellow ground. North Devon gravel-free (also known as North Devon smooth or North Devon plain) lacks the gravel temper and is often found in the form of tall (baluster) jars. A North Devon plain slip-coated variety has been found identified at Jamestown (Watkins 1960; Outlaw 2002) and on a few 17^th century sites in Maryland (Hornum et al. 2000; Davis et al. 1999), but could be indistinguishable from sgrafitto at the sherd level.

Chronology

North Devon wares are commonly found on mid-late 17^th and early 18^th century sites in the Chesapeake region.

North Devon gravel-free
North Devon gravel-free wares show up early on Chesapeake region sites. A baluster form or tall jar has been found in pre-1635 contexts from sites in Maine and Virginia (Faulkner and Faulkner 1987:204) and at the Ferryland site in Newfoundland. A few sherds of North Devon gravel-free or fine gravel-tempered have been recovered from a 1637 – 1650 site (18ST233) at St. Inigoes, Maryland (Sperling and Galke 2001).

North Devon sgraffito
North Devon sgraffito wares date to the second half of the 17^th century on Maryland archaeological sites. The flatwares were no longer manufactured after about 1700 (Grant 1983), but harvest jugs continued to be made into the third quarter of the 18^th century. Sgraffito wares are generally not found on archaeological sites after 1700 (Miller 1983; Grant 1983:13), but a dated flatware piece (1733) was found at the White Swan Tavern in Chestertown, Kent County Maryland, and may have been specially commissioned (Grant 1983:122).

North Devon gravel-tempered
North Devon gravel-tempered ware was manufactured from ca. 1600 – into the 19^th century, and became available in the Chesapeake by ca.1650. According to Noël Hume (1970:133), North Devon gravel-tempered ware did not become common until the last quarter of the 17^th century. Its presence on archaeological sites in the Chesapeake region generally indicates a fourth quarter of the 17^th century to first quarter 18^th century occupation.

Description

Fabric
Coarse earthenware body with a pink or reddish to orange colored paste with a gray core resulting from reduced oxygen during firing. On many thin-bodied North Devon slip and sgraffito sherds, the body is mostly to entirely gray, with only patches of red-orange. The paste is well mixed with a fine, smooth texture and contains very fine sand particles. The coarse, angular gravel added to the North Devon gravel-tempered paste ranges up to 12 mm in diameter, and imparts an obvious rough texture to the ware when it protrudes on the surface. The gravel temper makes up 15 – 25 % of the paste, and up to 30 % in the baking ovens (Watkins 1960:48).

Glaze
Thin lead glaze that ranges in color from yellow to green to light brown. While most vessels are glazed on just the interior, storage jars are frequently glazed on both exterior and interior surfaces. A white slip is applied to the sgraffito and plain slip-coated wares, and appears yellow below the lead glaze.

Decoration
North Devon gravel-free and gravel-tempered wares are generally undecorated. Incised lines were occasionally added to the exterior of tankards, pitchers, and cooking pots. Sgraffito is decorated by incised designs that cut through a white slip, exposing the reddish body below. The white slip appears yellow underneath the lead glaze, and the incised lines are brown. Motifs included spirals, zigzags, tulips, sunflowers, leaves, tendrils, hearts, animals, and people. Initials and dates were added to presentation pieces such as chargers or posset pots.

Form
Wheel-thrown utilitarian or food consumption wares of nearly every conceivable form were manufactured. Dairy wares such as milk pans and butter pots are most frequently found on archaeological sites. Other forms include chargers, platters, plates, jugs, pitchers, storage jars, bowls, cooking pots, pipkins, porringers, colanders, chafing dishes, mugs, tankards, cups, chamber pots, posset pots and candlesticks. Rectangular pans and baking ovens were made from molded slabs. These ovens, made from the gravel-tempered body, were shipped to Maryland and Virginia (Grant 1983:120), and have been found at several sites in the Chesapeake region (Watkins 1960). Gravel-tempered handles, for extra strength, have been observed on sgraffito mugs and jugs in the May-Hartwell collection from Jamestown, Virginia (Outlaw 2002).

Notes

North Devon wares, manufactured throughout the 17^th century, are distinctly identifiable. The extensive trade networks established by Bideford and Barnstaple merchants made this ware the most common utilitarian and dining wares in many areas of England, Ireland, the Chesapeake region, New England, and the Caribbean (Grant 1983). The utilitarian forms of this ware dominate many late 17^th century sites, with North Devon gravel-tempered making up as much as 45 % of some assemblages. During the 17^th century, sgrafitto wares were fine dining wares, and were prominently displayed in well-to-do households. Towards the end of the 17^th century, sgrafitto was eclipsed by the growing preference for blue and white tablewares, such as the tin-glazed wares made in England and the Netherlands. The North Devon utilitarian wares were replaced by the Buckley-type earthenware, as that ware became more available through changing trade networks in the 18^th century.

References

Davis et al. 1999; Faulkner and Faulkner 1987; Grant 1983, Hornum et al. 2000; Miller 1983; Noël Hume 1970; Outlaw 2002; Sperling and Galke 2001; Watkins 1960.