Here are my two cents.  The pierced disk may also be from a butter dish.
Butter used to be formed into balls, hence the term butterball.  Butter
dishes in the 1800s were subsequently round with a domed lid. (butter
dishes only became rectangular with the acceptance of prepackaged butter
in stick form in the early 1900s) Often, butter dishes had a deep base
to hold ice chips to keep the butter from getting too soft.  A pierced
ceramic inset was used to separate the butter and the ice.  (See Sears &
Roebuck 1897 and Montgomery Ward & Co. 1895) The antique dealers I have
spoken too, tell me that it is hard to find a round butter dish with its
inset intact as they seem to have broken easily. 

Have you contacted the author of "Down By the Station: The excavation of
Los Angels Chinatown"?

Keith


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Voss" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011 1:39 PM
Subject: help identifying historic ceramics?


> Dear Hist Arch'ers,
>
> My students and I have come across some unusual ceramics from the
Market
> Street Chinatown in San Jose; we've been unable to identify them with
the
> standard references. Perhaps some of you have seen them elsewhere?
>
> Pictures are posted on our project website:
> http://marketstreet.stanford.edu/
>
> They are:
> 1. A perforated, oval-shaped whiteware dish
> 2. A porcelaneous stoneware rice bowl with an unusual and very
stylized
> underglaze motif
> 3. An eight-sided porcelain cup with a floral overglaze motif.
>
> Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated - thanks so much
>
> --Barb
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Barbara L. Voss, Associate Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 50, Main Quad
> Stanford University
> Stanford CA 94305-2034
> 650 723-3421 (dept office)
> 650 725-0605 (fax)
> [log in to unmask]


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