Tides of Celadon: Glaze Color Chronology from the Edgefield Pottery District, South Carolina

Abstract

ABSTRACT Large alkaline-glazed stoneware vessels from the Edgefield District of South Carolina have long been studied by ceramic historians and collectors. Manufactured by enslaved laborers in the antebellum period, these vessels were sold throughout the South. Based on extant vessels from collections, scholars have proposed that a lighter green glaze, often called celadon, was manufactured earlier than a darker green-brown glaze. This assertion has not been tested systematically using archaeological evidence. Understanding how glaze color changes over time at one kiln site allows us to better understand antebellum aesthetic and economic systems. Establishing that there is change over time is the first step toward asking why this may be the case. Was it purely an aesthetic choice, an economic one, or due to experimentation with glazes by enslaved laborers? Excavations in 2011 and 2013 at the Pottersville site (38ED11) uncovered thousands of alkaline-glazed stoneware sherds that can illuminate this topic.