< PreviousMullowny had left the country in 1816, when he was appointed United States consul to Tenerife, a post he held until 1820.38 From 1820 until his death in December 1830, he served as U.S. consul at Tangiers in Morocco.39 During Mullowny’s absence in 1816, David G. Seixas appears to have managed the pottery. Seixas placed a newspaper notice in that year: “Apprentices wanted Several boys between 13 and 17 years old well recommended, will yet be taken at the White Ware Manufactory at the end of Locust Street on Schuylkill.”40AECOM ceramic specialists reconstructed this section of an unusual looking domed lid recovered during excavations in the Northern Liberties section of the I-95 project. This lid (approximately 2.25 inches tall, 11.5 inches long, and 8.25 inches wide) was made to cover a large oval serving dish. The form is based on and may have been copied from English creamware examples, like those illustrated in the Leeds pottery catalog. Although this lid has no identifying marks, the Washington Pottery advertised “oval dishes” for sale in 1813. Photograph by Thomas J. Kutys, 2018.Illustration below from Design of sundry articles of Queen’s or cream-coloured earthenware, circa 1814, showing wares manufactured by Hartley, Greens & Co., Leeds, England. Courtesy of the Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection.cm0502inch50 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesIn the fall of 1817, a lengthy newspaper article described Seixas as the proprietor of a pottery “near this city.”41 The article praised the “white crockery” produced at the pottery and detailed some of the manufacturing processes. While the location of the pottery was not disclosed, it is likely that Seixas continued to operate “the White Ware Manufactory at the end of Locust Street on Schuylkill,” as noted in his advertisement seeking apprentices in 1816.42 The name of the potter was not mentioned, but the article stated that “no foreigner has ever had any concern or superintendence, or employ, in his manufactory.”43 Although the newspaper article describes the production of a whiter bodied ceramic ware, Seixas was listed in the Philadelphia city directories as a “Queensware Manufacturer” on “High Street West Schuylkill 7th” (Market at Sixteenth Street) from 1818 through 1822.44 David G. Seixas was the son of Gershom Mendes Seixas, the hazzan (or Jewish religious leader) of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City.45 David Seixas was among the Jewish volunteers who served as soldiers during the War of 1812.46 By 1819, Seixas began to work with “deaf and mute” children, taking some of them into his home. As a result of his success in teaching these children, the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb was established the following year, and Seixas was hired as a teacher.47 It is not clear how Seixas divided his time between the two ventures; however, no further information has been found regarding the pottery after 1822.The national significance of these early entrepreneurs and Philadelphia queensware has come into focus during our past 10 years of archaeological discoveries and research for the I-95 project. This local ceramic industry demonstrates the young nation’s determination to strengthen its domestic economy and become more independent in manufacturing. In addition to enhancing our understanding of early American material culture, the value of our discoveries has grown as the early finds from this project have helped to identify queensware on other sites along I-95 and beyond. Philadelphia queensware recovered from the ongoing I-95 project will be the subject of future articles with more complete analysis available online at diggingi95.com.Archaeological excavations in Northern Liberties included sites in the vicinity of the Columbian Pottery warehouse. AECOM project photograph, 2018.findingQUEENSWARE Beyond PhiladelphiaGeorge CressThomas J. KutysRebecca L. WhiteMap showing locations of sites in Philadelphia, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey, where the authors identified Philadelphia queensware. Detail of Map of the United States including Louisiana, James D. Stout, 1818. Library of Congress.Aerial view (facing north) showing the archaeological excavations of the Red Rose Transit Site in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. AECOM project photograph, 2009.21123Philaelphia, PACamden, NJLancaster, PA3100755025052 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesPerhaps even more amazing than discovering American-made queensware on archaeological sites in Philadelphia was finding examples during our excavations of two sites outside of the city—one in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the other in Camden, New Jersey. We were able to identify the fragments of queensware vessels from these two sites by comparing them with the more complete pieces we were recovering and reconstructing from the I-95 project. Lancaster, situated 60 miles west of Philadelphia, was the earliest established interior town in Pennsylvania. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Lancaster was the gateway for the shipment of goods to points farther west. AECOM’s archaeological investigations conducted in 2009/2010 at the Red Rose Transit Site exposed portions of the earlier history of this property, located at the corner of Chestnut and Queen Streets, beneath the tracks in a nineteenth-century train shed. In a small section of this city block, archaeologists uncovered historic yard deposits, a stone-lined well, the remains of a redware kiln, and evidence of brass manufacturing.1 Among the artifacts associated with the households and early manufacturing processes, we identified a small quantity of American-made queensware.These queensware vessels were probably purchased locally and used by members of the Ehrman family, who lived and worked on the property from circa 1777 through 1833.2 In newspaper advertisements, members of the public were encouraged to purchase American-manufactured goods—a stance which likely appealed to the Ehrman’s, as they operated a brass foundry on the property. The recovered queensware sherds appear to represent portions of a bowl and saucer, although they are less complete than the vessels uncovered during the excavations for I-95 in Philadelphia.In the final report for this project, prepared in 2010, we suggested that this queensware may have been made in either Philadelphia or Lancaster.3 Continuing investigations into the manufacture of American queensware have uncovered no evidence of attempts to produce this type of ceramic in Lancaster.4 Our recent research shows three possible sources for the Philadelphia queensware fragments identified during archaeological investigations in 2009/2010 at the Red Rose Transit Site in Lancaster. (Top row) Interior and exterior views of the base from a saucer with flecks of green decoration on interior surface. (Bottom row) Rim fragments from a bowl with a green mottled decoration on the exterior surface. Photograph by James Burton, 2010.cmRiver Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 53William Green or Greer in Lancaster.10 Since none of the queensware sherds recovered from the Lancaster site were marked with the name of a manufacturer, it was not possible to connect them more directly with one of the potteries supplying this area.Camden, New JerseyIn the spring of 2011, we encountered additional pieces of American-made queensware during archaeological investigations conducted in Camden, New Jersey. The site, located on Cooper Street between Third and Fourth Streets, was slated for the construction of new student housing for Rutgers University.11 Excavations revealed evidence of the early-nineteenth-century households that once occupied the property.American-made queensware was recovered with other household artifacts from three wood-lined box privies associated with two households. Edward Smith, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant, and his wife, Sarah, occupied a home there primarily in the summer months.12 By 1811, Sarah’s unmarried sister, Hannah Maskell, had purchased a portion of the property.13 Hannah owned the house next door to the Smith’s until 1836.14 Once again, as noted previously in Lancaster, the queensware forms from this site are less complete than the growing number of examples we were recovering from ongoing excavations along I-95. The Cooper Street queensware consists of rim and body fragments queensware—John Mullowny, David G. Seixas (both in Philadelphia), or Thomas Vickers (pottery located in Chester County).5 John Mullowny advertised the products of his Washington Pottery in the Lancaster Journal in August 1811. He listed a large assortment of vessel forms:…Gallon, half gallon, quart, and pint pitchers of various kinds. Tea pots, sugars, coffee pots, creams, cups and saucers, butter coolers, wine coolers, chambers, egg cups, pickling and preserving jars, basins, quart, pint and half pint bowls, garden pots of different sizes, mugs, goblets and tumblers &c.6 In addition, Mullowny offered apprenticeships and constant employment for journeymen potters. He advertised again in Lancaster in 1812, offering an appeal to “…gentlemen from the country, who are friends of domestic manufactures…”7 The name of another Philadelphia queensware manufacturer appeared in the Lancaster Journal in June 1818, when it was announced that “D. G. Seixas of Philadelphia” was opening a “New China Store” at the corner of Queen Street and Market Square.8 Seixas probably hired someone to run the Lancaster shop, since he continued to be listed as a “Queensware manufacturer” in Philadelphia from 1818 through 1822.9 The surviving account book from Thomas Vickers’s pottery records the sale of a large quantity of pottery to cm0502inch54 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River Chroniclesfrom a bowl and what appeared to be a basin with a flat, projecting rim. This form was recently confirmed, based on the discovery of a more complete example from excavations in the Northern Liberties section of the I-95 project. None of the pieces of queensware from the Camden site show evidence of a manufacturer’s mark; however, the proximity of the site to Philadelphia points to the potteries located there.Although the queensware vessels may have been purchased and used by members of either the Smith or Maskell households, our recent research turned up another interesting connection. Hannah Maskell was married twice after she moved to the house on Cooper Street. Her second husband, Alexander Henry, was one of the wealthiest merchants in Philadelphia. When John Mullowny sold the Washington Pottery warehouse in 1814, an Alexander Henry purchased it.15 It seems very likely that the Alexander Henry who purchased the Washington Pottery warehouse was the same man who married Hannah Maskell in 1823.16 Finding queensware on sites beyond the city of Philadelphia provides us with information about the distribution of this domestic manufacture and hints at the popularity and short-lived success of this pottery. The discovery of the more complete vessels from the I-95 project played a significant role in confirming the identity of the fragments recovered from these two additional archaeological sites.(Opposite) Fragments of Philadelphia queensware recovered during archaeological excavations at the Smith-Maskell Site in Camden. (Top) Large rim sherd from an undecorated queensware bowl. (Bottom) Two fragments from the rim of a basin similar to more complete vessels recovered in the Northern Liberties section of the I-95 project. Photograph by Thomas Kutys, 2011. (Background) View looking east toward archaeological excavations at the Smith-Maskell Site in Camden, New Jersey. AECOM project photograph, 2011.cm0502inch56 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesRecovered from one of the earliest features at the Gunner’s Run South Site, located in the heart of the original Fishtown neighborhood,1 this ovoid pitcher represents one of the more complete examples of “encrusted” queensware—a classification archaeologists and collectors have often assigned to queensware decorated with bits of adhered clay.2 Standing approximately 6.25 inches tall, this pitcher features a 1.5-inch band of reeding between “encrusted” fields. The attachment for the reeded handle has been trimmed to a “V” and pressed onto the body of the vessel. Like many queensware vessels, this pitcher exhibits numerous subtle manufacturing flaws, including gouges around the base of the straight neck from trimming and thicker accumulations of “encrustation” just above the base. Though the pitcher appears to be a refined tableware vessel, the base itself shows charring and minor spalling3 from heat.This pitcher presents a prime example of the confusion and uncertainty that has previously surrounded the identification of queensware. A similar, if not identical, pitcher was recovered in 2001 from the site of the new Liberty Bell Center on South Sixth Street in Philadelphia, and was identified as a “yellowware jug with snow Thomas J. Kutysoverglaze decoration on either side of a central incised band.”4 Despite this initial yellowware identification, archaeologists, citing a collector source,5 did tentatively attribute the vessel to the Washington Pottery of John Mullowny—noted for its production of queensware6 —and dated the piece as early as 1809. It’s worth noting that American yellowware is traditionally dated after circa 1828.7 Clearly, in the case of the 2001 discovery, and certainly in regard to many pieces in longstanding archaeological collections, the archaeologists knew they had something that did not fit the existing historic ceramic classifications, but were unsure how to identify it.The author and other AECOM archaeologists were initially on the fence about this pitcher’s identity, though its recovery from a pre-1830 feature as the only yellow-bodied ware found and the added green decoration (something rarely, if ever, seen on nineteenth-century yellowware) immediately raised questions. Very faint and unnoticeable at a passing glance, each field of “encrustation” on the pitcher has been further decorated with four roughly circular dabs of green. These green dabs, eight in total on the vessel, alternate with each other on either side of the central reeded band. The recovery of additional sherds from similarly decorated yellow-bodied pitchers not only reinforced our suspicion that these pitchers were locally produced (likely as queensware), but also strengthened our belief that the subtle green dabs were indeed intentional. One sherd, in particular, exhibited a much darker, perhaps more enduring, attempt at this green decoration.findingGRITTED QUEENSWARE An Evolution in IdentificationThe mended queensware pitcher at left was recovered from the Gunner’s Run South Site in Fishtown. The muted green dabs are barely visible over the grit on the upper left and right shoulders. The sherds below—from similar, if not identical, gritted queensware pitchers—were recovered from the Northern Liberties neighborhood. Both fragments bear similar green dabs, though the smallest example exhibits the darkest yet documented. Photograph by Thomas J. Kutys, 2018. (Detail) While the material on “encrusted” wares has traditionally been identified as bits of adhered clay, the queensware grit, shown here under 4x magnification, is clearly a crushed lithic. Though the historic use of calcinated flint on ceramics has been documented in Scotland, the identification of the queensware grit is ongoing. Photograph by Daniel King, 2018. River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 57Research into the history of the Philadelphia queensware industry strengthened this pitcher’s identification as such. Susan H. Myers’s landmark work8 on Philadelphia ceramics included an advertisement from John Mullowny’s Washington Pottery, in which “Gallon, Quart, Pint & Half Pint Grelled & Plain PITCHERS” were listed for sale9 (italics added). Upon review of similar original newspaper advertisements, it became apparent that this advertisement had likely been transcribed from microfilm that had made the original difficult to read. The Washington Pottery had actually advertised the availability of “Gallon, Quart, Pint & Half Pint Gritted & Plain PITCHERS.”10 The correction of this transcription was only made necessary through the recovery of the Fishtown pitcher, and in a fortuitous way, the historical and archaeological records had thus informed each other.It is clear now that this pitcher from Fishtown—and similar sherds from the Northern Liberties neighborhood—are indeed gritted queensware pitchers, probably made at Mullowny’s Washington Pottery. The grit itself is also of interest. Despite the fact that the material on “encrusted” wares has traditionally been identified as bits of clay, to the naked eye and even more so after microscopic inspection, the grit on the queensware pitchers consists of crushed lithic material, not clay. While it is likely that many ceramic vessels were indeed “encrusted” with clay bits, an analysis of pottery material from Portobello, Scotland, does include yellow earthenware encrusted with “calcinated flint.”11 Many of the players in the Philadelphia queensware industry were of Scottish descent, some specifically from Portobello. Further analysis is needed to identify the lithic material that comprises the queensware grit, but given all of this, the potential is intriguing.This substantial trough-like feature, excavated in 2012 at the Gunner’s Run South Site in Fishtown, yielded a large assemblage of pre-1830 artifacts, including the gritted queensware pitcher. All safety regulations were followed in the open field excavation. Partially lined with wood, this feature is thought to have served a drainage purpose before being filled with neighborhood refuse and closed off. The queensware pitcher represents the only yellow-bodied ceramic recovered from this feature. AECOM project photograph, 2012.58 | Vol 3 | 2018 | River ChroniclesAECOM archaeologists found this porcelain collar or cuff button in a feature associated with residences at 1035 E. Berks Street and 1034 E. Hewson Street in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood. Based on identifiable glass bottles and ceramics from the same deposit, we’ve dated this artifact to the third quarter of the nineteenth century, when the residences were rented out to area workers. Simple undecorated porcelain collar and cuff buttons, or “studs,” were widely available and affordable at the time.1 However, this example is very distinctive. Instead of being in the shape of a knob, with a round face and round shaft, this one is rectangular with slightly concave chamfered corners. The shaft itself has four flat sides. The ingenious design of the shaft kept the button from rotating and becoming askew.Worn by both men and women, collar buttons were commonly used to fasten detachable collars to the neckbands of shirts, or to fasten together the ends of collars or neckbands. Detachable collars (and cuffs) achieved the appearance of neatness and cleanliness, while allowing the same shirt to be worn multiple times without laundering. This saved time and money, along with extending the life of the garment. Women would wear collar buttons on dresses with high collars that could be finished with narrow straight bands, allowing small white collars or narrow ruffles of fabric or lace to be attached to the top of garments. Cuff and collar buttons were made of many materials, such as mother-of-pearl, plated metals, bone, porcelain, and celluloid (after 1870). The ability to change neckwear and buttons allowed for more versatility in garment adornment.2 cmAn UnusualCollar ButtonMadelaine PenneyPhotograph by John Stanzeski, 2018. River Chronicles | Vol 3 | 2018 | 59Next >