Identifying Ceramics from Fort St. Joseph

Hi everyone,

I have been making progress on my research project identifying the ceramics in our collection. This can sometimes be difficult, but I have been enjoying learning how to tell them apart. It is always exciting when I am able to definitively identify a ceramic as a specific type. There are many unique ceramic sherds in the Fort St. Joseph collection with various identifiable characteristics. 

I have been researching and learning about different types of ceramics found at sites in what was once New France. One particularly useful resource has been a book about ceramics found at Fort Michilimackinac, called “Eighteenth-Century Ceramics from Fort Michilimackinac – A Study in Historical Archaeology,” by Miller and Stone. Though the pictures in this book are in black and white rather than color, they still can be very useful for comparison. This has led me to be able to identify ceramics more precisely than I might have otherwise. 

One of the first ceramic sherds I was able to definitively identify was a piece of English delft (pictured here on the right), specifically a type that is powdered blue or purple. Given that this is a distinctive way of producing delft, I could definitively say that this ceramic sherd was delft rather than faience (pictured to the left) or another type of ceramic. 

I have also identified quite a few creamware sherds. These are typically not too difficult to identify due to the cream color of both the glaze (the outside of the ceramic) and the paste (the inside of the ceramic). One especially exciting sherd I was able to identify was a small creamware fragment that had a design on part of it (pictured below). I was able to find a picture of one of the creamware sherds found at Fort Michilimackinac that had the exact same design on it. 

While some ceramics are more ambiguous than others, some can be more precisely identified. I will continue to identify more and more ceramics over the course of my research. I am looking forward to seeing what else I will be able to identify from the Fort St. Joseph collection.  

Emma