Redware Pottery 

        by John Nass, Jr., Editor, President of Mon Yough Chapter 3

 Season Greetings!

     In order to get back on track with the Mon Yough Chapter Blog, I will be writing a series of vignettes on artifact classes often found on French and English colonial sites, and sites postdating the Revolutionary War. Vignettes are basically a short narrative.

     The first vignette considers redware, a lead glazed earthenware pottery found on historical sites from the 16^th century until the early 20^th century. Redware gets its name from the reddish brown colored paste used to structure the vessels. During this lengthy period of time redware was used in the kitchen, the dairy parlor, for laundry, hygiene/washing, and the family meal table. Redware was also used for meals at commercial localities such as taverns.

     Excavations at the Green Tree Tavern Stand in Fayette County recovered a fair amount of redware. Much of it resembles the redware vessels shown in this image below. In fact, redware is a very prolific type of ceramic, having been found at every historical site (Searight’s Tavern, Peter Colley Tavern, Gaddis Fort, and Nemacolin Castle) investigated by California University of Pennsylvania in Fayette Counties. 

     Of the redware vessels represented within these various collections are redware flatware (plates) and bowls that are decorated with a slip decoration (see below). Decoration is applied by slip-trailing in white, and is simple and geometric. Designs include broad bands, stripes, loops and lobes. The interior surface is then covered with a clear lead glaze. Slip decoration was applied to the following redware shapes: Bowls, Jars, Jugs, Pitchers, plates, platters, saucer, and tea pots.

     It is rare to find a complete or even a broken vessel that can be cross-mended. Most recovered sherds resemble the example shown below and sometimes the slip has spalled off the sherds, leaving the imprint or pattern of the slip design. Such wares were produced from the mid 18^th century into the 1820/30s.

Slip decorated redware plate.

    Slip decorated redware bowl.

     Like stoneware, redware was often produced for local consumption by small businesses, which could range from an individual to a group of artisans. The well-known stoneware potters of Greensboro in western Pennsylvania produced an array of products for both local and distant markets., made possible via river transportation.  Redware, however, was often produced by a family strictly for local consumption.

 

Example of an archaeologically recovered sherd.

     Excavations at urban redware potteries have recovered a plethora of vessel forms. In contrast, I believe it is safe to say that a small, rural, family operated redware pottery has never been excavated in Pennsylvania. Since the distribution of redware vessels by a rural pottery is usually circumscribed, most small communities were probably serviced by at least one redware pottery.   

     All of the sites that I previously mention have examples of undecorated and slip decorated redware and I assume that it was produced somewhere around Uniontown or Brownsville in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. To be able to find and excavate a small, intact redware pottery site would be a major achievement.