# bowl reconstruction



## cobaltbot (Jan 8, 2011)

I'm trying to put together an exhibit of artifacts from Stonetown for our local Heritage Festival in May.  The plow zone really did a number on the ceramics.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 8, 2011)

I have tons of great pieces to make a collage out of and very few have most of the pieces as this one.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 8, 2011)

Not too great, but at least the people will get an idea of what it once looked like.  According to a Maryland archeology site this bowl is circa 1775 - 1810 which would make it over 200 years old.


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## surfaceone (Jan 8, 2011)

Hey Steve,

 Really nice restoration, sir! I appreciate your dedication to this site, and to see this beauty resurrected from it's fractured sleep is a pretty powerful presentation piece. 

 I'm hoping for more previews to your Festival. Y'all seem to be pretty serious on the History




From.


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## Jim (Jan 8, 2011)

Nice reconstruction, Steve. That is the kind of thing that I love to see.  ~Jim


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## cowseatmaize (Jan 9, 2011)

> Nice reconstruction, Steve. That is the kind of thing that I love to see.  ~Jim


 Really, great work. I don't remember if it was you doing the jugs also but it's a great example of how archeology can mix with bottle diggers.
 Good work to anyone and everyone who takes on these projects.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 9, 2011)

Thanks for the comments surf, Eric, & Jim!  The Coulsontown project that I also support is within sight of Stonetown.  Their histories are interlaced and I'm sure some of the early settlers lived in the Stonetown apartments waiting for the Coulsontown houses to be built.  Early church services were held at Stonetown before they had a church and I'm sure there was lots of traffic between the two back in the early days.  Some of the displays I hope to make will probably find permanent residence in Coulsontown.   I discovered the Stonetown foundation last year in February and went there wearing snowshoes and started digging after removing two feet of snow.  This year we haven't had the insulating snow and with the unusually early December freeze its been pretty locked up.  With the shallowness of the relic layer I don't want to risk damaging anything with a spud bar.  During the brief "warm?" spell last week I visited there and pulled these broken scissors out of the side of a bank that the sun had loosened up a bit.  They should go well with the buttons, straight pins, and thimbles I've dug.


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## cowseatmaize (Jan 9, 2011)

Ah, I've probably told that before...
 Great finding stuff in mid winter though, isn't it? It's also nice to know where to start looking. An aimless wondering in the wood isn't too likely to make you plunge a shovel in.[]
 Nice digs and, like I said, archeologists would be proud. Keep up the good work.


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## Ratzilla (Jan 11, 2011)

Nice bowl, your dating is correct - it's pre 1800 - and was it was made in England, this was imitation Chinese pottery, less expensive than the real stuff from China.  We also occasionally dig them in Philly from late 1700's - early 1800's pits, this one came from an 1810ish hole.


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## baltbottles (Jan 11, 2011)

Nice reconstruction on the saucer Steve. Here are two Tea cups similar to your saucer. These were recovered from a pit that was filled in by around 1790 in Baltimore.

 Chris


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## Dabeel (Jan 11, 2011)

Man I love this stuff!
 Great display Steve
 also nice ones from Chris and Tom.

 I have a bunch from the 1850's site in Chinatown San francisco.

 Thanks for posting,
 Doug


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## Dabeel (Jan 11, 2011)

here's one that I wished was whole:


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## cobaltbot (Jan 15, 2011)

Thanks Tom, Chris, and Doug.  Tom's and Chris's are very similar - nice.  This might now be my earliest proven artifact from Stonetown.  I was posting to say that Chris informed me last night that its a saucer and not a bowl - duh!  I found a similarly decorated chip so now I know it probably went to the cup.  Pardon my ignorance Chris but the tea cups didn't have handles??  I thought I kept up with posts but somehow missed the replies to this one!


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## baltbottles (Jan 16, 2011)

Steve most early cups are handleless until about the 1850s  Though there are some handled examples that are early.

 Chris


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## digger don (Jan 16, 2011)

Here is another one of the china looking cups. And a few others from the same hole .What years would you date these at ?  Thanks Don


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## digger don (Jan 16, 2011)

Pic #2


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## digger don (Jan 16, 2011)

Pic#3


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## digger don (Jan 16, 2011)

Pic#4   Plate


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## baltbottles (Jan 17, 2011)

Don,

 It looks like the pit was used for quite sometime based on the ceramics. The first cup is an English made pearlware tea cup in the Chinese shape. This shape and the straight foot date this cup from about 1790-1810 The earliest pearlwere cups tend to have a slight tapering angle to the foot and date to the 1780s

 The second cup has the London shape  and is again english made but quite a bit later I would date it to the 1820s-30s

 The second picture the first cup is of the Chinese shape but English made. I would date it from about 1800-1820

 The second picture second cup is of the London shape, again English made likely dates from about 1815-1830

 The small cream pitcher in the third picture uses a later color pallet and dates to the 1830s perhaps even as late as the early 1840s

 The black transfer plate is most likely 1820s-1840s if it has a back mark I mite be able to give you a better idea of its age.

 Chris


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## baltbottles (Jan 17, 2011)

Here's a picture of 5 tea cups all in the Chinese shape.

 1. Chinese export porcelain circa 1770s
 2. English Hand Painted Pearlware Chinese  House circa 1780s
 3. English Hand Painted Pearlware Abstract Floral and Berries circa 1790s
 4. English Salopian Transfer Peralware Bird and Fruit circa 1800s
 5. English Hand Painted Pearlware Abstract Floral pattern circa 1810s

 Chris


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## baltbottles (Jan 17, 2011)

Picture two is of 5 more tea cups all in the London shape.

  1. English Hand Painted Pearlware Abstract Floral and Berries circa 1820s
  2. English Hand Painted Pearlware (Spatterware) Dove on branch circa 1830s
  3. English Hand Painted Pearlware Abstract Floral pattern circa 1840s
  4. English Hand Painted Pearlware (Spongeware) circa 1850s
  5. English hand Painted Ironstone Abstract Floral Pattern circa 1860s

  You can see how the quality of the design and intricacy of the painting goes down over time. Also the cups steadily become thicker and less delicate the newer they become.

  Chris


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

Thanks Chris  That's about the age I thought. Just by the glass that came from the hole. All black glass and broken chestnuts and london mustards. I'm not to good at dating the cups and plates. I wish I had started keeping these pieces a long time ago. I was to interested in just the bottles. Thanks for the good reference's . You have some really nice stuff. I'd like to see more of your collection.   Don


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

Chris  There are no markings on the back of the plate.


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## baltbottles (Jan 17, 2011)

Don,

 I'm glad to see that you are saving the shards now. Its well worth the time to take the pottery home and glue this stuff back together. I got lucky and met a couple diggers early in my privy digging. That saved the shards to reconstruct. And I quickly got hooked on pottery.

 I have met a lot of diggers that don't like to dig pits earlier then the 1840s because of the lack of embossed and intact bottles. For me the older the pit is the more interesting it becomes. In the past decade I've dug many hundreds of embossed pontiled bottles, Sodas, Flasks, Medicines, Bitters, ect. But now a days colonial pottery especially early slip decorated redware really gets my blood flowing.

 I'd love to see some pictures of any early redware you guys find. Even if you only have 65-70 percent of a highly decorated piece its worth saving and gluing.

 Here is a picture of 3 early Slip decorated pitchers likely made by the same potter. All were found in early Baltimore privies and date around 1790-1810. All 3 were also glued back from shards.

 Chris


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## cobaltbot (Jan 17, 2011)

Man, thanks Don for adding in and I'm enjoying the lessons.....Do the London shapes also get taller or is that just coincidence?


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

No problem Steve. This stuff is pretty interesting I'm glad you started this bowl reconstruction thread.  Here are a few more pieces from the hole that I didn't get enough of to glue back. Because my " buddies" didn't do a very good job in the bottom of the hole. They still aren't into shards. From now on I will do the bottom of the "to early" holes Pre 1840's are mine all mine guys !


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

Woops here's the pics. This was really sweet looking .Wish I had more of it.


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

Some cups


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

More cups


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## digger don (Jan 17, 2011)

The only piece of slip that I got from the hole.


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## Ratzilla (Jan 17, 2011)

That pitcher was 1820 - 30 era english mocha in the 'tree' pattern, very nice, and the striped stuff in the second photo is more mocha ware from the same era. The 'joseph' shard in the next photo is from a childs cup, more like 1840's. The redware shard looks like a chunk of a small milk pan, would've looked like this in it's previous, more intact life...


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## Ratzilla (Jan 17, 2011)

I've found that when digging pre 1850's era holes, the pottery shards are often more interesting than the bottles.  Those willing to go to the trouble of sifting out all the pieces and putting them back together (that can be the toughest part - try taking a couple dozen jigsaw puzzles, mixing all the pieces together, throwing half of them away, then attempting to reassemble what's left for practice)  will be rewarded. Everything in the pic below was recovered & rebuilt in the last 2 years.  Keep up the good work!


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## cobaltbot (Jan 17, 2011)

Wow, great looking stuff guys definitely worth the hard work of trying to save and reconstruct it.  The ground at Stonetown is locked up frozen but I'm hoping this year to find some more pieces broken "in place" and not scattered to kingdom come or better yet a deeper pocket!


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## blade (Jan 18, 2011)

Don I like shards to.[]


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## digger don (Jan 20, 2011)

Yea  Berlin Bitters shards. Lets leave the ceramics to me.


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## REMEMBERME (Jan 23, 2011)

Steve, I was very excited to see the progressive pictures of your saucer reconstruction.  I see you used the blue painter's tape.  What type glue did you use?  Great job!!  I can hardly wait to get back to my little finds.  I believe I have some pieces like the ones Ratzilla showed.  This is so new to me that I joined this forum hoping to learn how to do things like this and learn more about dating.  I have ordered a ton of books, but so far, I'm getting more applicable knowledge from this forum!

 Thanks,
 Maureen


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## cobaltbot (Jan 23, 2011)

Thanks Maureen, I used Elmers but might try the carpentry glue after reading the other post.  The sand pit idea sounds pretty good too.  Post some pics and welcome to the forum!


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