Lead-glazed redware, glazed on both sides
Light gray-bodied lead-glazed earthenware, yellowish green glaze
Excavated behind Holden Chapel, this ceramic sherd carries the material signature of early modern Atlantic trade. Its dense gray fabric and salt-glazed, non-porous surface are characteristic of Rhenish blue and gray stoneware produced in the Westerwald region of Rhineland (Janowitz). The presence of manganese purple beneath unpainted incised ribbing indicates manufacture after manganese decoration entered the Westerwald repertoire in the mid-seventeenth century (Tolbert and Warrenfeltz 52), suggesting production in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. Such wares, which were originally crafted for the German middle class, traveled through English trade networks and reached North American markets in substantial quantities (Tolbert and Warrenfeltz 49). Durable, transportable, and well suited to storage, Rhenish stoneware traveled with merchants along the Rhine River’s commercial corridor (see map route above). The cultural familiarity of this material is also evident in mid-seventeenth-century Dutch art: the Ashmolean Museum notes that Westerwald stoneware had recently entered Pieter Claesz’s studio props in the 1640s and remained in use into the early 1650s (Ashmolean Museum). Its appearance in Still Life with a Ham (1642) helps to further animate our archaeological find by situating such vessels within scenes of food, drink, and domestic exchange. Though fragmentary, this sherd from the Holden Chapel site embodies a broader history of production, circulation, and everyday consumption in a way that links Harvard’s early landscape to the commercial networks that structured colonial life.
Rhenish stoneware sherd recovered from Unit H981 behind Holden Chapel. Exhibits gray fabric, salt glaze, manganese banding, and incised ribbing.
Janowitz, Meta. “Maryland Department of Planning Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum.” MDP, Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, 7 Oct. 2018, jefpat.maryland.gov/Pages/default.aspx Tolbert, Maria and Justin Warrenfeltz. “An Unsurprising Find: Rhenish Stoneware at Westwood Manor.” The Westwood Manor Archaeological Collection: Preliminary Interpretations, edited by Julia A. King et al., Archaeology Practicum Class, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, May 2010, pp. 49–56. Colonial Encounters, colonialencounters.org/files/sitereports/Westwood-1.pdf “Rhine River Map.” Emerson Kent, www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/rhine_river.htm. Accessed 27 Feb. 2026. “Still Life with a Ham.” Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 1642, https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/still-life-with-a-ham-141824. Accessed 27 Feb. 2026.
In a quiet town in the West Midlands of England in the late 1600s, a potter spins a wheel of clay. Amidst the bustling factory, he hones in on his trademark speciality, a manganese-mottled tankard. The finished product has a smooth rim, with dark purplish brown flecks and streaks of manganese (Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum 2008). Accompanied by a caramel brown lead glaze, this tankard’s elegance is found in its simplicity. These black mugs and tankards gained popularity beginning in the 17th century (Hume 2006). Many manganese-mottled tankards journeyed from the potter’s wheel in the West Midlands to colonial towns such as Charlestown. For these young colonies, taverns were centers of community life and it is likely that a manganese-mottled tankard would have found its way there. As songs played in the background, citizens could often be found socializing over tankards of beers and smoking pipes. The Three Cranes Tavern in Charlestown and the Goody Bradish Tavern right next to Harvard were familiar spots for many a Harvard man (Morrison 1936). The Puritan leaders of the time attempted to control drinking and smoking by outlawing them from the Harvard campus. In fact, both drinking and smoking were explicitly outlawed in the College Book of Laws (College Book 1636). When students wanted a drink, many would come to these taverns. Today, we have some records that depict what taverns in the 17th century were like. For example, Dutch painter David Teniers has manifested the frivolity and light-heartedness of taverns in his painting “Smokers and Drinkers” (Teniers 1660). These taverns were the precise antithesis of the stern and austere Harvard institution of the time. Manganese-mottled earthenware was eventually made in the colonies, and by the 18th century, it had become much more ubiquitous. Students at the College brought their own vessels to use, and their vessel of choice often corresponded with their socioeconomic status. Manganese-mottled earthenware speaks to both the traditional table at Harvard, which was defined by scheduled meal times and socioeconomic hierarchy, and it also speaks to the other, more licentious Harvard experience that took place in taverns. Today, it is likely that sherds of manganese-mottled earthenware are located below our feet in Harvard Yard. Perhaps some originated from the West Midlands and perhaps some traces back to the Three Cranes Tavern; however, it is clear that no matter the origin, this ceramic sheds light on life in the 17th and 18th centuries at Harvard.
“After David Teniers the Younger | Peasant Seated, Smoking and Drinking, to the Left of a Table | The Met.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Accessed April 4, 2019. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/376343. “Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland.” Accessed April 4, 2019. http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/colonialceramics/Colonial%20Ware%20Descriptions/ManganeseMottled.html. Harvard University. Corporation. College Book 1, 1636-1795. UAI 5.5, Accessed April 1st, 2019. Harvard University Archives. Hume, Ivor Noel. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 2001. Accessed April 1st, 2019. Print. Morison, Samuel Eliot. Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century. Accessed April 1st, 2019. Harvard university press, 1936.
Manufacturing in Cambridge: A Locally-Made Apothecary Bottle?
This brilliant blue glass sherd was part of a bottle of medicine labeled with parts of the words “Druggist” and “Cambridge,” as well as (presumably) the druggist’s name. Only the letters “ILE” are visible on the top line. Cambridge was a manufacturing center in the 19th century, and in particular a leader in the glass industry. One of the top employers was the New England Glass Company, established in 1818 (Cambridge Historical Society). Though most of its production was “flint glass” rather than apothecary bottles such as this one, this company was the site of a critical invention: in 1827, a worker named Robinson invented the “pressing mould,” involved spreading molten glass into a mold with a plunger (Cavanaugh 38). This was the later of two 19th century innovations that made glass production far less expensive. The earlier method was blowing glass into a mold, which was practiced at the factory as early as 1819 (Toledo Museum of Art 18). This method was more appropriate for bottle making. This bottle’s mold would have had four side plates that would butterfly up, and one of these sides would be replaceable with a plate that embossed the desired text. Because of the ease of the interchangeable plate in blowing glass, it is possible that this bottle was not made in Cambridge. However, the presence of one of the east coast’s largest glass factories in the same city as the apothecary hints at the possibility that this blue bottle was molded locally.
Bibliography Cambridge Historical Society. 1997 Cambridge on the Cutting Edge. Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge. Accessed April 4, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20101211113328/http://cambridgehistory.org/NE_Glass_history.htm Cavanaugh, Doris Hayes 1926 Early Glass Making in East Cambridge. Paper presented at 1926 meeting of the Cambridge Historical Society, pg. 32-45. Electronic document, http://www.cambridgehistory.org/content/early-glass-making-east-cambridge. Accessed April 4, 2017. Toledo Museum of Art 1963 The New England Glass Company, 1818-1888. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Accessed April 4, 2017. https://archive.org/details/newenglandglassc00tole
Metal disc with 2 holes; small pin/nail through one hole