Robert Hunter
Hampton, Virginia

Ceramics in America 2017

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    Detail of Henricus Hondius’s Nova Virginiae Tabula, Amsterdam map of the Virginia colony and the Chesapeake Bay, 1630. 15 1/2 x 19 1/2". (Geographicus Rare Antique Maps Cooperation Project.) 

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Plan d’Hampton pour servir a l’Etablissement du Quartier d’hiver de la Legion de L’auzun, le 1 9bre, 1781 (Plan of Hampton [Virginia] to be Used for Establishing the Winter Quarters of Lauzun’s Legion. 1 November 1781). 15 3/8" x 12 3/8". (Princeton University Library Collection.)

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    An 1864 photograph of the Grand Contraband Camp in Hampton, Virginia. (Courtesy, Library of Congress.) The camp was the first self-contained black community in the United States, with a population of 9,000 by 1865.

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Photograph of fieldwork conducted by archaeologists from the College of William and Mary on the future site of Hampton’s Air and Space Center, 1988. (Photo, Robert Hunter.) Various seventeenth- and eighteenth-century trash pits containing large quantities of ceramics, glass, and animal bone can be seen. 

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Photograph of the excavation of an eighteenth-century cellar at the Goodyear-Kramer Tire Store lot on the corner of South King Street and Settlers Landing Road, 2006. The Hampton Air and Space Museum is in the background. (Courtesy, James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc.) 

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Photograph of a ca. 1690–1710 Westerwald stoneware mug moments after it was found in the fill of a seventeenth-century tavern cellar by archaeol­ogists from the College of William and Mary, 1989. (Photo, Robert Hunter.)

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Weser slipware two-handle pot, Germany, 1590–1600. Lead-glazed earthenware. H. 5 3/4". (Courtesy, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Hampton, Virginia; photo, Robert Hunter.) Weser ware was made in a number of production sites between the Weser and Leine Rivers in northern Germany. This example is distinguished by the addition of the unusual rouletted decoration. 

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Illustration from Lee Gebhart and Walter Wagner, It’s Still a Mystery (New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1970). 

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Dish, Portugal, ca. 1640. Tin-glazed earthenware. D. 7 7/16". (Hampton University Museum; photo, Colonial Williamsburg.)

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Reverse of the dish illustrated in fig. 9.

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Jug, North Devon, England, ca. 1660–1670. Sgraffito slipware. H. 6". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Dish, attributed to William Oliver, North Devon, England, dated 1668. Sgraffito slipware. D. 10". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Punch bowl, possibly Brislington, England, or Netherlands, 1689. Tin-glazed earthenware. D. 9 1/2". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Detail showing 1689 date inscribed inside the bowl illustrated in fig. 13.

  • Figure 15
    Figure 15

    Salt, Staffordshire, England, ca. 1690–1700. Slipware. W. 4". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 16
    Figure 16

    Michelle Erickson, Hampton Salt, 1990. Slipware. H. 2 3/4". (Photo, Robert Hunter.) Facsimiles of the Staffordshire salt illustrated in fig. 15, showing the conjectural base of the original. 

  • Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Trencher salt, Hugh Quick, London, ca. 1674. Pewter. (The British Museum, Portable Antiquity Scheme, www.finds.org.uk, Unique ID: LON-A83118.) Note the hexagonal shape.

  • Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Mugs, Westerwald, Germany, ca. 1690–1701. Salt-glazed stoneware. H. of tallest 4 3/16". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 19
    Figure 19

    Illustration from Howard Pyle, The Story of Jack Ballister’s Fortunes (New York: The Century Co., 1895), p. 136. Pyle’s narrative recounts the adventures of a young man who was kidnapped in 1719 and carried to the plantations of Virginia, where he fell in with Captain Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard. Note the Westerwald stoneware jug in the right foreground.

  • Figure 20
    Figure 20

    Teapot, attributed to William Greatbatch, Staffordshire, England, 1760–1765. Lead-glazed earthenware. H. 5". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Robert Hunter.) William Greatbatch was the most talented Staffordshire designer and maker of ceramic models and molds during the second half of the eighteenth century.

  • Figure 21
    Figure 21

    Waste bowl, Staffordshire, England, 1760–1770. Lead-glaze earthenware. D. 4 3/4". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 22
    Figure 22

    Sauceboat, Staffordshire, England, ca. 1775. Slip-decorated creamware. L. of fragment 5". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.)

  • Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Sauceboat, Staffordshire, England, ca. 1775. Slip-decorated creamware. L. 7 3/16". (Courtesy, The Mint Museum, Museum Purchase: Delhom Collection, 1965.48.1677.)

  • Figure 24
    Figure 24

    Dish, Staffordshire, England, 1820–1830. Pearlware. W. 12 3/4". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Gavin Ashworth.) Transfer-printed in the so-called Russian Scenery pattern.

  • Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Plate, possibly Davenport, Staffordshire, England, 1820–1830. Pearlware. D. 10". Marks: impressed anchor mark on the reverse; printed “SEMI CHINA” (Private collection; photo, Robert Hunter.) An antique example of the so-called Russian Palace pattern. It differs from the excavated example illustrated in fig. 24, suggesting that more than one manufacturer copied the pattern. 

  • Figure 26
    Figure 26

    Jug, probably Staffordshire, England, 1850–1860. Whiteware. H. 6 1/4". (Courtesy, Hampton History Museum; photo, Robert Hunter.)

  • Figure 27
    Figure 27

    “The Burning of Hampton by the Rebel Forces under Colonel Magruder,” Harper’s Weekly, August 31, 1861, p. 550.