Congratulations to Barbara Magid and Bernard Means for their
excellent article "In the Philadelphia Style: The Pottery of Henry Piercy"
in the latest issue of Ceramics in America.  Henry Piercy was a
Philadelphia potter who set up shop in Alexandria, Virginia in 1792 and
began throwing pots in the Philadelphia tradition.  Magid and Means
provided and excellent comparison of waster sherds from Piercy's pottery
with contemporary wasters from sites in Philadelphia.  Visually, the wares
of the two cities appear identical. It is great to have the superb color
photos taken by Gavin Ashworth in this article.  In addition to the visual
comparison of these wares, Magid and Means presented some preliminary
results of a comparison of clay and waster sherds from Alexandria and
Philadelphia when analyzed by using Mössbauer Spectroscopy.
Archaeologists, ceramic historians and collectors have a long tradition of
identifying a range of slip-decorated redwares as having been made in
Philadelphia.  This article shows that we cannot depend on just visual
identification and suggests that trade pattern identification based on
visual identification can be problematic.  This article alone would make it
worth adding Ceramics in America 2003 to one's library if you are
interested in ceramics.  In addition, there are great articles by Miranda
Goodby on the immigration of English potters to America in the 1840s, an
excellent article by Rob Hunter and Michelle Erickson demonstrating how
complex agate wares were made and Ivor Noël Hume's article on chamber pots.
We have long needed a journal that published ceramic articles with good
color plates and now we have one.  Rob Hunter posted information on
ordering the journal at a special discount.  It can also be ordered from
Amazon.com.

George L. Miller
URS Corporation