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Stoneware of eastern Virginia

Magazine Antiques, April, 2005 by Robert Hunter, Kurt C. Russ, Marshall Goodman

The utilitarian salt-glazed stoneware of eastern Virginia has received little attention from ceramics scholars. In part this is because an over-whelming interest in the products from the Shenandoah Valley has overshadowed the significance of the stoneware industry in the eastern part of the state. (1)

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However, new research is contributing to a better understanding of the depth and complexity of the stoneware manufactories that once operated in Richmond, Petersburg, Yorktown, and areas to the southeast along the James River. As a result, a broader context can be established for understanding the nature of eastern Virginia stoneware, its manufacture, and the wide range of forms and decoration represented in its production. In addition, several recently discovered objects provide evidence of sophisticated decorative treatments previously unattributable to eastern Virginia and equal to the artistic and aesthetic contributions of any other regional stoneware tradition in the United States.

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Ironically, the story of American stoneware actually begins in eastern Virginia in the early eighteenth century, at the Yorktown factory of the entrepreneur William Rogers. Although not a potter himself, Rogers's up-to-date factory was the first successful American attempt to produce salt-glazed stoneware in the hope of lessening American dependence on Great Britain for utilitarian ceramics. Archaeological investigations conducted at the factory site between 1966 and about 1981 by Norman F. Barka of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, revealed the remains of a large workshop complex, including the well-preserved remains of two pottery kilns. Examination of thousands of earthenware and stoneware waster fragments documented the enormous range of pots made at Rogers's factory. (2) His utilitarian stoneware vessels rivaled British-made examples in appearance and quality and were produced in fifteen different forms--from chamber pots to teapots (see Pls. II, III). The stoneware was dipped in a liquid slip containing iron oxide prior to firing to create the rich speckled brown finish typical of the finest British stoneware of the period. Other decorative treatments were limited to an occasional incised line around a shoulder or the foot of a mug. In spite of the huge quantities that were evidently produced, the only known examples today are the many vessels that have been recovered from archaeological excavations in Williamsburg and other Tidewater colonial towns. Historical documents attest that Rogers's wares were exported to Maryland, New England, and the Caribbean.

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Following Rogers's lead, other eighteenth-century American stoneware manufactories soon sprang up in Philadelphia, New York, Trenton, and Boston, but not until the 1790s was stoneware being made in the Virginia town of Alexandria. The Alexandria stoneware industry has been the subject of intensive research and archaeological excavations of related sites sponsored by the city. This research and the great interest of collectors have made Alexandria stoneware among the best-documented and most recognizable of American ceramic products. Notable examples of decorated Alexandria stoneware continue to be discovered (see Pls. IV, V). (3) By contrast, similar industries one hundred miles to the southeast along the James River, in the Richmond and Petersburg regions, have been only marginally investigated and are consequently poorly understood both by scholars and local collectors. (4)

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By 1806 salt-glazed stoneware was being produced in Petersburg by Thomas Lowndes Sr. (w. 1806-d. 1811) and his family. An immigrant from the Staffordshire district in England, Lowndes must have brought a considerable repertory of potter's skills to Virginia. Unfortunately, very little evidence of his early Petersburg production has come to light. Better documented are the blue and gray products of his son Henry Lowndes, who took over the pottery after his father's death. Newspapers of the time suggest that the Lowndeses made both earthenware and stoneware, although no surviving examples of the former have been identified. (5)

The most ambitious of Henry Lowndes's stoneware incorporated applied molded decoration, perhaps reflecting his Staffordshire heritage (see Pl. VI). Such decoration was reserved for a series of presentation pitchers and coolers. In addition to these molded elements, his stoneware is easily recognizable by the brushed cobalt blue floral designs and his slip-trailed signature, which adorns a large proportion of his work (see Pls. VII, VIIa).

After Henry Lowndes's death in 1842, other members of the family ran the pottery until it was sold to Thomas and John Ducey in 1855. The Duceys continued producing stoneware in Petersburg until about 1878. Little is known about the full range of their production with the exception of their brushed cobalt blue decorated storage jars, which are often stamped with their mark (see Pl. XI).

Stoneware of eastern Virginia

Magazine Antiques, April, 2005 by Robert Hunter, Kurt C. Russ, Marshall Goodman

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