Posted to artifact and histarch.
 
 
A while back, there was some discussion about small, worn pieces of
ceramics, and whether or not these might be gizzard stones, ingested by
fowl to aid in digestion. I just acquired a book that gives further
evidence that ceramics were, indeed, fed to domestic fowl -- a regular
enough occurance that it has been included as a blue china-hunting anecdote.
 
The quote:
 
"Or, the seeker of historic relics may make his way to the back door (the
true hunter of old china never approaches the front) through the pigs and
hens of the barnyard, only to be informed by the woman who opens it, "Old
blue dishes? Land, yes! I had stacks of them, but when they got broken I
just pounded them up and fed them to the hens!" As he picks his way to
the gate he may take a long look at the poultry, until there rises before
his vision rows of Easter eggs born into the world bearing the sad love
story of Chang and his sweetheart Koong-Shee, or else the benign features
of Franklin or the Father of His Country; surley, "Caesar dead and turned
to clay..." has a parallel in the present."
 
Before you twitch and gasp at the treasure-seeking / sappy romanitc tone
of the quote, have a look at the date of the reference!!!
 
Here it is:
Camehl, Ada Walker (1946) The Blue-China Book: Early American Scenes and
History Pictured in the Pottery of the Time. 2nd edition (**note, the
first edition was published in 1916, by EP Dutton and Company). Tudor
Publishing Co. New York. (quote from pp. xvii; this section is the
"Introduction to the First Edition).
 
Cheers,
Megan.
 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Megan Springate          !   "It is not a revolutionary statement to be part
MA Student, Trent U.     !   of a consumerist marketing niche" - wolfie
Historical Archaeology   !
[log in to unmask]     !   "It's all completely subjective" - Hothead's Lamp
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