Typical sgraffito ware, therefore, dates from 1664 to 1695, plus or minus a few years. Gravel-tempered ware predominates in the same period, but extends well into the 18th century, probably to about 1760. Ovens date from between 1664 and 1695. The concentrations of wares within the limits of the May-Hartwell drain site correspond roughly with records of heavy shipments of the wares between 1681 and 1690. The earliest shipment recorded was to New England in 1635.
The sgraffito ware probably served as much for decoration as for practical use. Each piece was decorated differently, with elaborate designs, and in such a manner that it could provide a colorful effect on a court cupboard or a dresser, matching in style the carved woodwork or crewel embroidery of late 17th-century furnishings. Although sgraffito ware represented a degree of richness and dramatic color, it did not match the elegance of contemporary majolica, decorated after the manner of Chinese porcelain. Heavy and coarse, the sgraffito ware essentially was a variant of English folk pottery, reflecting the less sophisticated tastes of rural West of England. It did not occur in the colonies after 1700, by which time it was supplanted in public taste by the more refined majolica.
Gravel-tempered ware apparently was esteemed as a kitchen ware, much as is the modern “ovenware” or Pyrex in the contemporary home. Since gravel-tempered ovens were widely used in the West of England, they were accepted by settlers in America, especially where built-in brick ovens were lacking.
Unlike those of Staffordshire or Bristol, the North Devon potteries failed to develop new techniques or to change with shifts in taste. The delftware of London and Bristol and the yellow wares of Bristol and Staffordshire became preferable to the soft and imperfect sgraffito ware. In the same way, the kitchen ware of Staffordshire and the adequate red-wares of American potters made obsolete the heavy, ugly, and incomparably crude gravel-tempered ware, while American bricklayers, having adopted the custom of building brick ovens into fireplaces, outmoded the portable ovens from North Devon after 1700. Any chance of a renaissance of North Devon’s potteries was killed by the blockading of its ports in the mid-18th century. From then on the potteries continued traditionally, their markets gradually shrinking at home in the face of modern production elsewhere. Today, only Brannan’s Litchdon Street Pottery in Barnstaple has survived.
Other References Consulted
Bemrose, Geoffrey, Nineteenth-Century English Pottery and Porcelain, New York, n.d. (about 1952).
Blacker, J. F., Nineteenth-Century English Ceramic Art, London, 1911.
Chaffers, William, Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain, 14th issue, London, 1932.
Gribble, Joseph B., Memorials of Barnstaple, Barnstaple, 1830.