Description:

Fabric: Rough pink to buff quartz-tempered fabric flecked with occasional hematite.(picture)

Glaze: Lead glaze appearing amber to olive, iron in the clay creates reddish brown streaks. Open forms are glazed on the interior while closed forms are covered on the top half only. Most of the wares are undecorated but some are incised with wavy lines or are embellished with finger-impressed bands.

Form: Wide range of wheel-thrown forms including chamber pots, jars, tripod pipkins, porringers bowls, plates, dishes, cups, candlesticks, and flower pots.

Verwood is located 15 miles south of Salisbury on the heathlands north of Poole. There are few references to the potting industry prior to 1620 although a 1337 estate record documenting the payment by tenants to dig pot clay indicates that potters were established in the area by the 14th century. Pottery production at Verwood on any large scale had ended by the 1880s (Algar et al. 1987:36).

Verwood was marketed in Salisbury and neighboring coastal English towns. The ware dominated the post-medieval coarseware market at Poole, carpeting over ninety-five per cent of the market (Horsey 1992: 64). The ware is found in London contexts between 1600 and 1900.

Sources
Algar, David, Anthony Light and Penny Copland-Griffiths (1987) Verwood and District Potteries: A Dorset Industry. Second Edition, The Verwood & District Potteries Trust.

Horsey, Ian P. (1992) Excavations in Poole 1973-1983. Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Monography Series: Number 10.

Sites
Jamestown Rediscovery: Pit 4, Pit 3, and Ditch 6. All sherds appear to be from tripod pipkins.

Prepared by Bly Straube