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Wed, 12 Nov 1997 09:08:46 -0500 |
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Ohio yellow ware manufacturers made Rockingham and linear banded chamberpots
ca. 1840-1860, and these are fairly common. Site specific examples are
available from the Howson pottery at Zanesville, and I expect that they
turned up at the Bromley pottery excavation in Covington, Ky., as well.
Slightly later, large plants such as E.H. Merrill in Akron, Ohio, was
producing large nos. of both Rockingham and bristol glaze stoneware
chamberpots. Rockingham and yellow ware chambers were also common at the
Quaker Valley pottery, ca. 1885.
I'm assuming that the large, covered "commode" and "slop jar" did not come
in until the production of ironstone and semi-porcelain "wash sets" or
toilet ware.
Earlier, unglazed (outside) redware chambers are seen fairly often, but with
no provenance.
As for Ned Heite's privy-less sites, I recall walking a small stream in
central Kentucky where every other large rock had been utilized. As
indicated by William B. Lees' comment, this is probably not a universal
explanation, and I don't suggest it is a trait peculiar to central Ky.
Needless to say, I did not sit and think, but it struck me at the time that
in summer the local inhabitants must prefer the less odiforous out-of-doors
to the confines of a privy or that maybe they didn't even have that luxury.
Jim Murphy
[log in to unmask]
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