Stoneware of eastern Virginia

Magazine Antiques, April, 2005 by Robert Hunter, Kurt C. Russ, Marshall Goodman

Another area of stoneware production lies further east on the James River in Charles City County. Archaeological investigation at the Trees Point Pottery, six miles below Wilson's Landing, has helped identify the previously little studied pottery of this area. (20) Trees Point produced both utilitarian stoneware and specialized vessels used by the chemical industry. Among the potters who worked there were Moro Phillips (w. c. 1850-1853 in Virginia) and Sanford Perry (w. c. 1836-1850 in Virginia). Very few surviving examples of this pottery's work have been recognized. However, further research will surely turn up more examples by this and the other potteries of eastern Virginia.

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This article grew out of an exhibition entitled Stoneware Pottery of Eastern Virginia, 1720-1865 held at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond from September 11, 2004, through March 1, 2005. The curators were Robert Hunter, Kurt C. Russ, and Marshall Goodman.

(1) Harold Eugene Comstock, The Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1994).

(2) Norman F. Barka, "Archaeology of a Colonial Pottery Factory: The Kilns and Ceramics of the 'Poor Potter' of Yorktown," Ceramics in America, 2004, pp. 15-47.

(3) Brandt Zipp and Mark Zipp, "James Miller, Lost Potter of Alexandria, Virginia," ibid., pp. 253-261.

(4) Kurt C. Russ, "Exploring Western Virginia Potteries," Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, vol. 21, no. 2 (Winter 1995), pp. 98-138. The first known published reference to lower James River stoneware includes photographs of a storage jar with a cobalt blue slip decorated eagle, a jug with a brushed cobalt blue owl, and a pitcher with a brushed cobalt blue wreath encircling the date 1835. The source identifies these objects as part of an elusive group of wares made in the Richmond area and south along the James River and transported west via the canal system.

(5) Charles Edward Umstott, "The Lowndes Stoneware Pottery of Petersburg, Virginia," ibid., pp. 83-97.

(6) Ibid., p. 83.

(7) Bradford L. Rauschenberg, "'B. DuVal & Co/Richmond': A Newly Discovered Pottery," ibid., vol. 4, no. 1 (May 1978), p. 56.

(8) Richmond Enquirer, June 25, 1814, pp. 3-5; and Richmond Virginia Patriot, June 25, 1814, pp. 2-5.

(9) December 6, 1817, entry in "Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia Records," vol. 55, p. 964 (microfilm, Library Archives, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem).

(10) Records of the 1820 Census of Manufacturers, Henrico County, Virginia (microfilm, no. 279, roll no. 18, item 508, Library of Virginia, Richmond).

(11) Richmond Commercial Compiler, October 3, 1820; Richmond City Directory, 1819, pp. 21, 44. The directory cites the cost of drayage: "The rates for every dray or cart, shall befollows, viz: From Rockets' landing on the north west of Gilly's creek to Rockets' warehouse, 20 cents."