Hi All. Jamie Brandon, Ark Arch Survey at Magnolia, Ark, will likely 
respond after he surfaces from the annual Ark Arch Survey/Society 
Training Program, this year directed by him and taking place at 
antebellum Historic Washington State Park in SW Ark. He's been more 
or less without email for 2 weeks, but I can tell you when he was 
digging at ante and post bellum Van Winkle Mill Complex (lumber 
mostly) deep in the Ark Ozarks, he found part of an Alphabet plate in 
the quarters of a slave family.

At Washington, no such plates this  year, but we did find an 1850s 
cistern with an elaborate charcoal-filled filter box, a pierced 1736 
Spanish 2 reale coin, and approximately .2 zillion nails on the 
primary commercial block of "Old" Washington. And an anomalous (?) 
deposit with the shoulder to lip portion of 2 black glass bottles and 
a dense rusted pile of nails, and that's all. Yesterday was the last field day.

  At 08:55 AM 6/22/2011, you wrote:
>I am currently doing some research into alphabet or ABC plates - 
>white-bodied earthenwares produced during the 19th and early 20th 
>centuries and containing alphabets, usually molded or printed around 
>the rim.  We have found examples so far from six Maryland 
>collections and I am interested in learning about other examples 
>found in the U.S.  I am particularly interested in the context of 
>the items-dating, type of site, occupants, type of feature or layer 
>in which the artifact was recovered.
>
>Thank you in advance for sharing your findings.
>
>Patricia Samford
>Director, Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory
>Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum
>10515 Mackall Road
>St. Leonard, MD 20685