The 2020 volume of Ceramics in America is a celebration of the depth and diversity of ceramics in the American context. Beautifully illustrated articles explore the use of clay from the most basic building bricks to refined earthenwares promoting the political and economic issues of the American Revolution. Of special interest is the origin of the ceramic manufacturing spark in America, looking at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia cited by historians and connoisseurs as the height of recognition of achievement for ceramic production in the United States. The archaeological discovery of rare “black delft” teapot fragments from Charleston’s Drayton Hall is recounted in an exciting collector’s narrative. Other articles will include a profile of North Carolina potter David Stuempfle who continues the old-age tradition of producing wood fired stoneware, a study of Thomas Jefferson’s Chinese porcelain, and Pueblo pottery collected by a German Museum in the early twentieth century.
“Many New and Beautiful Designs”: Salvage Archaeology at the Philadelphia and Boston Face Brick Company
Mark Nonestied and Richard Veit
From Santa Fe to Mettlach: Pueblo Pottery and “Curiosities” in the Villeroy and Boch Keramikmuseum
Charlotte Jacob-Hanson
Martha Washington’s “United States China”: A New Link Found in a Family Notebook
Hannah Boettcher and Ronald W. Fuchs II
A Chinese Export Service Ordered for Thomas JeVerson: In Rei Memoriam
James Boswell
The Cape Coast Castle Platter
Jo Dahn
Ceramics Displayed at the Annual Exhibitions of American Manufacturing at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 1824–1858
Tom Folk
My Quest for a Rare Dutch Black Delftware Teapot
Joseph P. Gromacki with Robert Aronson, Sarah Stroud Clarke, and Michelle Erickson