Connecticut Kilns and North Carolina Connections

Me holding a piece of kiln furniture from the Connecticut kiln site. Private collection.

I have been on the road for the last few days looking at a kiln collection in Brooklyn, New York and just today seeing a collection from a kiln site in Bloomfield, Connecticut. While I work on permissions for sharing photos from the Brooklyn site, I am very excited to share photos from my Connecticut visit.

Decorated bottle fragment from Bloomfield, Connecticut site. Private collection.

If you might remember from late last year, I posted about my visit to the Museum of the Cape Fear in Fayetteville, North Carolina to see a collection from a kiln site explored there. The potters who operated that early kiln were originally from Connecticut. The reason why this kiln site in Connecticut was so incredibly exciting (in a nerdy sort of way) was the fact that so much of the kiln furniture was so similar to the North Carolina material. Connecticut connections!

Mark on bottom of jug fragment showing where kiln furniture was. Private collection.

Piece of kiln furniture with mark showing where the edge of a piece rested on top of it. Private collection.

How the jug would have sat on the bar-shaped piece of kiln furniture. Private collection.

Like the North Carolina kiln site where I speculated about how the bottles were stacked, this kiln site in Connecticut showed signs of similar bottle stacking methods. Like the North Carolina kiln furniture, there were round marks left on the bar-shaped kiln furniture which was shaped in the same fashion as the North Carolina kiln furniture:

Round marking left on kiln furniture. Note the pinched middle, similar to the North Carolina kiln furniture. Private collection.

Round mark and part of a bottle neck left on a bar-shaped piece of kiln furniture. Private collection.

The necks and handles of the jug fragments from the Connecticut kiln site also showed the same signs as the North Carolina kiln site that the bar-shaped kiln furniture rested across the top of the neck and handle.

Jug neck showing marks left from the kiln furniture. Private collection.

Jug neck and handle showing mark left and part of a piece of furniture. Private collection.

And, as usual, kiln floors and sections of the kiln are always exciting to see. There were several chunks of the kiln including this beautiful piece of what I think was a wall, with an incredible amount of melting and running:

Section of the kiln. Private collection.

It has been a great trip, I will try to get more up in the coming weeks and don't forget, if you're interested in Virginia earthenware, the 2012 Virginia Decorative Arts Seminar will be focusing on the topic and I will be presenting along with a great lineup of speakers next weekend! Check out the schedule and be sure to come!

Making kiln furniture

Squatty separator. Pawley Kiln site, Baltimore, MD. Courtesy, Maryland Archaeology and Conservation Lab.

 I am getting ready for a presentation on my kiln furniture research this weekend in Virginia. In doing so, I have been thinking a lot about how to visualize how the furniture was made. It helps having access to clay! One of the most fascinating pieces of kiln furniture is a separator, often called many things, but in following the most commonly used term, and Georgeanna Greer's terminology, we're going to call the shape a spool.

My hand around a separator, showing my fingers over the hand print on the separator. Webster kiln site, Fayetteville, NC. Courtesy, The Museum of the Cape Fear

 This piece of kiln furniture was likely made as the kiln was being loaded as the sizes and lengths often vary, and the nature of its use would make it necessary to be made while loading. As seen in the image below, the spool separators were likely used in the context of stacking jugs (seen in yellow and red below) and were also used to separate straight-sided vessels which were stacked on top of one another.

Conjectural drawing of kiln furniture in use. Drawing by Mike Heindl.

I made a few photos of how I am pretty sure this piece of kiln furniture was made. First, a bit of clay was rolled out. This rolling is evidenced by broken examples which show the spiraled pattern of the clay on the interior.

Rolling out the clay

Rolling

Rolled clay

Then the rolled section was grasped in the palm of the hand. A fascinating aspect of this project has been to see the various finger and hand prints left behind by the workers making the kiln furniture. Some of the fingerprints have been very tiny, like children's, and some of them are very, very large.

Grasping the rolled clay

Then the ends were smashed flat. These flattened areas would then fit to the edge or side of whatever vessel this piece was applied to.

Flattening one side

Flattened end

Flattening the other side

Ta-da! Quickly made kiln furniture, with the same impressions as found on the archaeological materials.

Kiln furniture, ready for use!

If you are in the Alexandria, Virginia area, be sure to come by the Alexandria Archaeology Museum this Saturday, January 28th, at 10:00 for my presentation. Should be informal, and hopefully informative!