A couple of thoughts and perhaps slightly pedantic clarifications on
Ron's comments below.

My form comparisons are between Wales, the Outer Hebrides and Virginia -
not England.  Also, there are significant variations in form at some
sites.  The poor whites in Virginia and one of the Hebridean sites
varied tremendously from the other four (2 Welsh, one slave quarter, 1
Hebridean).  I agree that it is very interesting that those four
assemblages are quite similar, and I've made a lot of it, but not all
sites adhere to some ad hoc 'rural poor' model.

Incidentally, I'm painfully aware that 6 sites is a small sample, and I
am expanding this research.

Furthermore, while availability often conditions acquisition, I fully
agree with Ron that it's worth looking for ethnic and/or national traits
in assemblages, and would strongly encourage anyone to examine this
issue when relevant - although it's important to be aware of the
potential pitfalls.  To use an American example, the Praetzellises would
no doubt remind us that the presence of another ethnic/national group's
material culture is not necessarily itself an indication of a shift to
another worldview.

Finally, following on from George Miller's earlier comments, an increase
in the percentage of transfer-prints in an assemblage, presumably cost
based initially, is also observable on this side of the Atlantic.  As
noted previously, one of the things I find interesting is that the
percentage of transfer prints in Wales skyrockets at just about the same
time that white granite becomes important in the States. Coincidence, an
attempt to find an alternative market, or just off-loading to the
margins of the UK?

Alasdair

Ron May wrote:
> I find it
> fascinating that vessel shapes do not seem to change from Wales to Scotland
> to England, but design patterns do. Alasdair proposed some of this is simply
> a result of availability, but I wonder? The Roeslein Homestead, CA-SDI-316,
> seems to be atypical to the pattern of homes occupied in California during
> the 1885-1917 period. And, you might be interested to learn there was ample
> evidence of Chinese, Japanese, Native American craft ceramics, a few
> ornamental glass vase ceramics, and all the tea/coffee cups were soft paste
> English specimens (which I interpret to represent parlor pieces). However,
> around here colorful transfer-print and hand painted English, American, and
> French designs were far more plentiful in residential households than the
> plain industrial white ceramics of the 1860s-1970s. Oddly, the Roeselein
> Homestead yielded mostly the latter. I am wondering if this is not an ethnic
> trait of German American immigrants? Any thoughts from the rest of the room?
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alasdair Brooks
Department of Archaeology
University of York
King's Manor
York
YO1 7EP
England, UK
phone: 01904 433931
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"The Buffalo tastes the same on both sides of the border"
Sitting Bull