Colonial Earthenware Ceramics

Earthenware: Earthenware is fired at the lowest temperatures, ranging from 900 degrees to 1050 degrees Celcius. This pottery is porous and requires glazing on at least one surface to hold liquids. The glaze generally contains lead oxide. Tin oxide is sometimes added to create an opaque glaze. However, not all earthenware is glazed, as is seen today on red clay flowerpots. Earthenwares fired at a low temperature have a soft, porous paste, generally ranging from buff to yellow to pink to red to gray in color. These coarse earthenwares are some of the most plentiful ceramics found on colonial archaeological sites, and their distinctive glazes, body types, and decorations help to date the site's occupation.

	Astbury-Type: Thinly potted earthenware with a dense, dull-red body and a ginger colored lead glaze.		Creamware: Creamware is a clear lead-glazed, thinly potted, refined earthenware with a cream colored body.
	North Devon: A green, yellow, or brown lead glazed coarse earthenware with a reddish pink to orange paste that has a gray core.		North Devon Sgraffito: A yellow lead glazed coarse earthenware with a reddish pink to orange paste that can have a gray core. North Devon sgraffito ware is identified by its incised slip decoration of brown motifs on a yellow background.
	Clouded or Tortoiseshell Glazed: Cream-colored refined earthenware that has a hard, somewhat porous body, and thin walls decorated with sponged decoration in combinations of green, brown, purple and yellow.		Jackfield-Type: A fine earthenware with a thin purplish to gray body covered with a lustrous black glaze. Often decorated with molded designs and gilding.
	Green Glazed: Characterized by brightly-colored (usually green or yellow) translucent lead glazes on a cream colored refined earthenware paste and has a hard, somewhat porous body, and thin walls.		Buckley-Type: A hard brick-red to purplish earthenware paste made by combining red and yellowish clays. Vessels are usually thick, often with ribbed exteriors, and generally glazed with a thick black lead glaze.
	Border Wares: A coarse earthenware with a fine-grained, pale gray to whitish paste. A variant with a light reddish paste, sometimes streaked with the white – gray clay, is known as Red Border ware.		Tin Glazed: A soft-bodied earthenware ceramic with a lead glaze to which has been added tin-oxide, often painted with blue and polychrome designs.
	North Midlands (Staffordshire Type): Typically, a thin, buff-bodied earthenware coated with white and dark slips and decorated with trailed, combed, or marbled designs.		Manganese Mottled: Most commonly occurs as a fine, buff-bodied ware covered by a yellowish lead glaze mottled with dark streaks or speckles, although coarser body fabrics were also produced.
	Agateware: Agateware is characterized by the use of a variegated ceramic paste created by mixing two or more different color clays. Produced in both stoneware and earthenware, agateware falls into two broad types: thrown agateware and laid agateware.