Andy,

"Asher and Adams' Pictorial Album of American Industry" (1876, reprint
1976) has some information on Tin Ware Manufactures on pages 12 and 13.
The enameling is often referred to as "japanning" or to have the vessel
"japanned."  While such wares were available earlier in the 19th
century, they seem to really come on beginning in the 1880s - which fits
well with your site date.

Hope all is going well with you,

Sean Dunham

Sean B. Dunham, RPA
Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group, Inc.
2530 Spring Arbor Road
Jackson, Michigan 49203-3602

Phone:  517-788-3550
FAX:  517-788-6594
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
http://www.ccrginc.com

>>> [log in to unmask] 12/05/02 07:41AM >>>
I'm in the process of conserving a group of nested pots that were
recovered from a wrecked vessel on the Missouri River and am having
trouble finding any information on them.  The vessel the pots were
retrieved from wrecked in 1882 or 1883 near St. Louis.   The pots were
found nested in a stack of ten with organic dunnage separated each
pot.
They were found in a wooden crate, so I presume that they were in the
process of being shipped.

I'm most interested in the historical data on the pots, such as what
the
pots were called and their construction techniques, other information
such as likely place of production would also be useful.

Secondly, I am in need of information about the enamal on the pots.
Particularly, how the enamalling was done and what the process was
called.

If anybody could answer these questions or offer some bibliographical
references, it would be a great help.

I have posted a picture of one of the pots on the following website,
sorry about the quality:

http://hometown.aol.com/andrewweirhome/myhomepage/photo.html

Thanks in advance,

Andrew Weir
Program in Maritime Studies
East Carolina University
Admiral Ernest M. Eller House
Greenville, NC 27858
252-328-6754