Last Quarter of the 18th Century Jars (1780-1800) New York (& Boston?)

Just about the close of the American Revolution and the departure of the British from Manhattan in 1783 a different type and size of oyster jar came to be produced in New York. It is not clear what led to this evolution, from what seems to be a consistently large (quart) size, to more like a pint. One thought is that this may relate to the fact that oysters were less available and much more expensive than they had been in New York whether it had something to do the lower availability of oysters or fewer working potters in Manhattan, but something caused a change. In this case the jars became appreciably smaller and the gallery around the opening became more refined, yet simpler. None of these jars have a gallery (lowered area surrounding the opening) as well-defined and deep as the slightly later Commeraw type jars that appear about the turn of the 19th century.

Despite subtle variations in the details of the gallery surrounding the openings, likely due to the fact that multiple potters were making the jars at one or more potteries, there does seem to be somewhat of a consistency in jar size. All of the jars I have observed from this period seem to be approximately 1.5 pints in capacity.

Among the jars from this period include a number of dark brown to almost black lead glazed, earthenware (redware) examples (pictured below). These jars, all recovered in Suriname to date, resemble the stoneware examples in form and scale. Given that they were dug in Paramaribo, Suriname, there is a good chance that these originated from ships sailing from New England, probably Rhode Island or Massachusetts. The famous mid-18th century painting Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam, depicting prominent Rhode Island ship captains in a Hogarth-like tavern scene, lends credence to the fact that NE captains were well connected to this port. For this reason, I believe these jars may have been brought there by men like this and likely originated in Boston, but I have no way to confirm this at this time. In speaking with the bottle diggers working in that region, they informed me that a large number of these jars have been dug up and discarded, thinking they had no value, in favor of the bottles they were seeking. In time, I hope to attribute this type.

The jars below are all from my collection except for the stoneware example on the left in the first group of paired photos. This jar is part of the collection of the New York State Museum. Several of these jars have been found in Guyana, but a smaller number have also been recovered in Charleston, SC where many New York oyster jars ended up as captains stopped there on their way south.