North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th Century

by C. Malcolm Watkins

The North Devon potteries manufactured for export, sending their wares to Ireland as early as 1600 and to America by 1635. The trade was particularly heavy in the years following the Stuart Restoration and was tied to the influential 17th-century West-of-England commerce with America. New England, Maryland, and Virginia received many shipments of North Devon pottery, an entire cargo of it having been delivered in Boston in 1688.

Sgraffito ware found in colonial sites in Virginia and Maryland is from a common source. The style of decoration is unique to English pottery and reflects Continental elements of design. It is reminiscent of decoration found on English and colonial New England furniture and embroideries. The only counterparts of this ware—matching it in style, paste color, and technique—are found among 17th-century sherds excavated from the sites of two potteries in Barnstaple. The 18th-century and 19th-century North Devon sgraffito ware surviving above ground differs considerably in style and form but in other respects it is the same as the ware found archeologically in Virginia and Maryland. The stylistic differences, noticeable on a piece in the Glaisher collection dated as early as 1704 (in which traces of the earlier style remain), were introduced by the turn of the century, thus strengthening the conclusion that the sgraffito tablewares found archeologically in this country must date from before 1700.

Figure 32.—Photomicrographs of gravel-tempered sherdsenlarged twice natural size, showing cross-sectional fractures. Top left,pan sherd from Jamestown (Colonial National Historical Park); top right,pan sherd from Angelica Knoll site, Calvert County, Maryland (UnitedStates National Museum); and oven sherd from Bideford (United States National Museum).

Figure 33.—Photomicrographs of gravel-tempered sherdsenlarged three times natural size, showing cross-sectional fractures. Top,pan sherd from “R. M.” site, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Plimoth Plantation,Inc.); lower left, oven sherd from Jamestown (Colonial National HistoricalPark); and oven sherd from John Howland house site, Rocky Nook, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Plimoth Plantation, Inc.).

Figure 34.—Rim profiles of North Devon gravel-tempered earthenware pans. All are from the fill around and beneath the May-Hartwell site drain at Jamestown (constructed between 1689 and 1695) except those marked, as follows: A, from Angelica Knoll site, Calvert County, Maryland, late 17th century to about 1765; B, from John Washington House site, Westmoreland County, Virginia, the period from about 1664 to about 1680; C, from “R. M.” site, Plymouth, Massachusetts, about 1670; D, from site of George Washington’s birthplace, near the John Washington house site; E, from Winslow site, Marshfield, Massachusetts, which was occupied from about 1635 to about 1699.

For kitchen utensils, tiles, and other objects subject to heat or breakage, the same Fremington clay received an admixture of fine pebbles, or gravel, secured at a special place in the bed of the River Torridge in Bideford. The use of gravel was described by 18th-century writers as well as by later historians. As found in America, the gravel-tempered ware apparently is unique among the products of either English or colonial American potters.