Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 16

The Western European Coarse Earthenwares from the Wreck of the Machault

by K. J. Barton

Conclusions

The study of Western European post-medieval coarse earthenwares is as yet in its infancy and there is a paucity of published reference material on the subject. However, the lead given by the publication of analyses of coarse earthenwares discovered on sites in the Americas should provide considerable stimulus to the study of such wares for it is in the Americas from at least A.D. 1600 onward that ceramic types with tight date brackets will be recognized, thus aiding their identification on the European mainland.

Such a reference group is formed by the ceramics recovered from the Machault for they can be given the precise terminal date of 8 July 1760. No other such precise date is available for any post-medieval type so far discussed in print. This fact and the lack of comparative published material makes this report a pioneer study. The results of discussing the Machault coarse earthenwares in Britain and France have already set precedents inasmuch as material similar to that from the Machault so far discovered in England has been dated to other periods through surmise and false comparison. The Machault ceramics are therefore of major importance in setting a market particularly for the wares from the southwest of France and elsewhere for the mid-18th-century periods.

The problems of correlating the types from the Machault, particularly Types 2 and 3, the slip-decorated red-fabric ware and the undecorated, unglazed and partly glazed red-fabric ware, had to be resolved scientifically. Dr. Traill's studies (see Appendix B) have shown that three major types occur and that there is a relationship in source between Type 2 and the red-fabric plates with "circles of dots" decoration and the white-slipped redware dishes with applied green colour decoration, both of which fall within the miscellaneous decorated and undecorated coarse earthenware category.

Type 1: Green-Glazed White-Fabric Ware

The green-glazed white-fabric ware, the most striking and singular type in the Machault coarse earthenware collection, can be attributed to La Chapelle des Pots (Charente-Maritime) in the Saintonge region of southwestern France. This attribution is borne out by the results of researches by Mr. R. G. Thomson of Southampton Museum. In the spring of 1973 the writer and Mr. Thomson visited the principal collections of ceramics in southwestern France. It was obvious that the green-glazed white-fabric ware and some of the other types discussed here originaled in the village of La Chapelle des Pots. The village lies in an area with a history of potting extending back to the 1st century A.D. The whole village abounds with pottery sherds which can be examined freely and in quantity. With the exception of a few medieval examples, these sherds are all of 18th- or 19th-century date and dominant amongst them were the wares classed here as Type 1. These wares have been found as far afield as Southampton. Bristol, Exeter, and Jersey, Channel Islands.

Type 2: Slip-Decorated Red-Fabric Ware

The sources of the slip-decorated red-fabric ware are difficult to determine because the decorations of the wares have been so badly defaced by the burning the wares underwent onboard ship; however, Dr. Traill has shown that the mineralogical content of Type 2 wares is akin to that of the miscellaneous red-fabric plates with "circles of dots" decoration and white-slipped redware dishes with applied green colour decoration (see Appendix B). The red-fabric plates with "circles of dots" decoration cannot be provenanced with certainty, but similar wares recur in the south of France (and at the Fortress of Louisbourg) where dot decoration of this kind occurs as commonly as it does in southwestern France. The flanged bowls (Fig. 11) occur at the Fortress of Louisbourg and there are examples of groups of dots as the only type of decoration on some of these vessels. It is probable, therefore, that these are from that group and originate in the south of France. The decoration of the Type 2 vessels show "tree" patterns and rings enclosing dots. It also has a strong characteristic pattern, that of the central whorl.

The miscellaneous white-slipped redware dishes with applied green colour decoration have not yet been provenanced, but M. H. Morrison of Beauvais assures me that they are similar to wares found at Martin-camp, Sovrus, in northern France. The rim form is noticeably similar to other wares from that region.

Type 3: Undecorated, Unglazed and Partly Glazed Red-Fabric Ware

The vessels within the undecorated, unglazed and partly glazed red fabric ware type have been shown to have the same mineralogical matrix.

The juxtaposition of the storage jar and the round-bottomed cooking pots in a similar fabric is useful as it can be shown that the latter originate in the south of France (comparative material was recovered at the Fortress of Louisbourg) and the matched fabric indicates that it is the source of the storage jar also. It is known that storage jars were made in Biot and Vallauris (Provence) although these vessels are of a different character in comparison with the one illustrated here.

Until the undecorated, unglazed red-fabric storage jars were recovered from the Machault, such vessels were always considered to come from the Iberian Peninsula although the writer has always thought this definition too narrow. It is known that in the 19th century red earthenware storage jars were imported from the Mediterranean, many containing train oil and linseed oil, and were commonly found decorating the outside of hardware stores in Great Britain. Although work has been done on the recognizable "Iberian" forms, other forms have not been dated to before, or possibly did not exist before, the middle of the 18th century.

Miscellaneous Decorated and Undecorated Coarse Earthenwares

Of the miscellaneous decorated coarse earthenware items not previously mentioned in the conclusions, the marbled-ware bowl (Figs. 22e, f, 23) is of particular interest as such wares have previously been considered to be northern Italian in origin. As this vessel was complete, it was not possible to take a sample for thin-section analysis which might have resolved the identification of its source. However, the form of the vessel, especially the rim form, is typical of many vessels recognized as coming from southern France. This type of marbling, so common to northern Italy in earlier centuries, could occur in other regions and is indeed a common form of decoration on slipwares in Britain although the forms and styles of the British vessels are different. No marbling is found in the southwest of France, a fact repeated by many local archaeologists; however such wares are found at potting sites near Marseilles, a principal supply port for the French colonies. Similar marbled vessels occur, together with a wide variety of wares, in one of the groups of vessels at the Fortress of Louisbourg.

The source of the fine brown-glazed red earthenware vessels is now known to be Liguria where they were produced in sufficient quantity to make them the common ware on the littoral of northern Italy and Provence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Such vessels could have been shipped from Marseilles. Fragments of similar ware were amongst the large quantity of post-medieval material at Mount Orguiel Castle, Jersey, Channel Islands, where the bulk of the ceramics appears to come from northwestern France and probably mostly from Normandy. This type is an important one in the finds at the Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beauséjour.

The fragments of the cooking pot (Fig. 24i) represent the only vessel of this type recovered from the Machault. Such cooking pots were very common at Fort Beauséjour, the source of the pot from which this vessel is reconstructed in the illustration. The marked characteristics of fabric and glaze are clues to source, but it is the top-fixing indentation which is the best indication of the source of the vessel for it is commonplace on the late 18th- to 19th-century vessels from the area around Marseilles.

In conclusion, it would appear on the grounds of bulk alone (although this has not been measured) that the coarse earthenwares recovered from the Machault fall into two groups; those defined in Types 1 to 3 and those in the miscellaneous group. The relatively few vessels in the miscellaneous category are almost all illustrated as little else of value in that category exists. Many of the hollow-ware vessels have scratches on them and the inner rims of the brown and black dishes are marked where knives have cut the glaze. As these items are few and worn it is suggested that they were crew's goods.

Types 1, 2 and 3 are present in bulk and some were obviously in crates at the time the ship went down. These were probably all cargo. However, some examples of the "cargo" groups are only represented by singletons and these may have been crew's goods as well.