Blue Hand-painted Shell-edged Pearlware Plate Sherd (Archaeological Find)

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This painting depicts New Englanders of the colonial era sitting down to dine. One can observe from the photo that the plates being used have a colored rim with a white center; this is typical of shell-edged pearlware. One can gather that they were of a higher socioeconomic class, given that they have servants waiting on them in this scene.

The painting displays an elaborately set table that would be typical of an upperclass home in the late 18th century. The plates displayed are made of fine porcelain China, a style that pearlware was made to replicate. The ornamentation of the scene signifies wealth and high standing within society. It is fitting, then, that wealthy students at Harvard would want to display their families' fortunes by bringing such dining ware with them to school. Even if their plates were not made of porcelain themselves, they were made of the next best thing.

This is a reconstructed shell-edged pearlware plate; it can give us a good idea of what the plate that the sherd came from looked like. Pearlware was relatively inexpensive and more closely resembled Chinese porcelain than its predessesor, creamware. Despite its relative inexpensiveness, it makes sense that wealthy students would have utilized it at the college. Their families would not have given them their Fine China to dine with, but would have readily supplied them with this marker of status, which the families of poorer students would not have been able to afford. There would be no archaeological record of the wooden troughs that these poorer students would have eaten from, as the wood would have disintegrated over these past 200+ years.

Title:

Blue Hand-painted Shell-edged Pearlware Plate Sherd

Subject:

Particular ceramic finds can tell us much about what life was like for different kinds of people during the colonial period. This shell-edged sherd can provide distinct insight into the life of the student who might have dined off of it. For instance, one can tell from the blue pools of glaze that are present in the rim of the sherd that this ceramic was intricately hand crafted. Craftsmanship that incorporated a shell-edged design was particularly popular from 1780-1840. Its ornate design was a signifier of some level of material wealth, or at least the appearance thereof, as the objects used to lay a table spoke volumes about the host’s standing in society. Cohorts of wealthier students at Harvard during the late 1700’s may have held elaborate dinner parties, particularly members of the notable Porcellian and Hasty Pudding Clubs, whose names derived from the dishes that would be served at weekly meals (namely pork and hasty pudding, respectively). The importance of signifying class status shows that wealth inequality was endemic at Harvard during the 18th century, which makes sense given Harvard’s Puritan origins. Wealth was seen as a marker of hard work, a Puritan virtue that was passed down even as Puritan ideals of modesty went out of fashion.

Source:

"Diagnostic Artifacts." Diagnostic Artifacts. 2003. Accessed April 03, 2017.
http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/post-colonial%20ceramics/shell%20edged%20wares/Shell%20Edged%20Wares%20Main.htm.

"At Table: High Style in the 18th Century." Carnegiemuseums.org. Accessed April 03, 2017.
http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmp/cmag/bk_issue/1996/sepoct/feat5.htm.

Calnek, Anthony. The Hasty Pudding Theatre: A History of Harvard's Hairy-Chested Heroines. Milan: A.D.C., 1986.

Lockett, Terrence A. "Pearlware: Origins and Types (Part 1)." Pearlware: Origins and Types (Part 1). Accessed April 03, 2017. http://www.thepotteries.org/features/pearlware.htm.

"Party like it’s 1776: A Look at Eighteenth-Century Ceramics." NMSC Archeology & Museum Blog. February 10, 2012. Accessed April 03, 2017. https://nmscarcheologylab.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/party-like-its-1776-a-look-at-eighteenth-century-ceramics/.

Object Name:

Blue Hand-painted Shell-edged Pearlware Plate Sherd

Inventory Description:

Blue Hand-painted Shell-edged plate sherd

Peabody Number:

2016.29.541

Culture/Period:

1780-1840

Intrasite:

H934 Level 1

Depth:

51-62

Class 1:

Ceramic

Class 2:

Earthenware

Class 3:

Pearlware

Quantity:

Height (cm):

6.1

Width (cm):

3.2

Depth/Thickness (cm):

0.5

Notes:

Significantly chipped away veneer

Collection:

2017 Assignment 2

Tags:

18, 19, ceramic