>
> I'm currently looking at a ceramic assemblage from a late 18th-century
> farmstead site in southeastern Connecticut and have come across a couple
> of questions in the course of writing up the inventory. First, were
> refined earthenwares ever salt-glazed and, if they were, how common a
> practice was it and what were the firing techniques?
 
Carl Steen is correct. Salt-glazed earthenware is not technically
feasible. However, I am surprised he did not mention alkaline glazes,
which are common in his neck of the woods...though mainly in the 19th
c. and never (I think) on refined white wares. If you're not used to
seeing these, they can appear to be salt-glazed. They can be produced
at lower temperatures, I believe.
 
 Second, I've come
> across several sherds of what I believe to be English white salt-glazed
> stoneware but which have no glaze left on them.  They don't appear to be
> obviously heat-altered as the paste shows no signs of burning - are
> there any other taphonomic factors or use patterns which could account
> for this condition?
>         Thanks in advance for any advice or references you can send my way...
 
 
I can't imagine, nor have I seen, white salt-glazed ceramics that have
lost their glaze. You often see American grey or brown stonewares
which have shed their glazes and surface slips in the firing process.
These are found as seconds or wasters at or near kiln sites. Are these
pieces slip-cast with typical English rim forms? If so, they may be
American attempts to copy English pieces by molding English plates. In
the late 18th and early 19th, there were many attempts to manufacture
"porcelain" in this country and they nearly all failed. I have found
biscuit (unglazed) whiteware-wannabees in waster piles in
Virginia.Otherwise, I again agree with Carl that you look to the
various bisque ceramics from Europe which are rare in American
assemblages. If this were a late 17th century assemblage, I might also
recommend you look at Chinese bisque porcelain (blanc de chine), but
I've not seen that in the new world at the period you are dealing
with.
 
> Kristen Heitert
> Public Archaeology Survey Team, Inc.
> Storrs, CT
>
 
Dan Mouer