XVIGlass

Illustration 28.—English delftware washbowl sherd. Blue-dash decoration inside. Seefigure 68b. Same size. (USNM 60.75.)

Illustration 29.—English delftware plate. One-half. Seefigure 69. (USNM 59.1707.)Illustration 30.—English delftware plate. One-half. Seefigure 70. (USNM 59.1706.)

Surprisingly, a minimum of tin-enameled wares was found at Marlborough, with several sherds reflecting the Port Town period. One of the latter shows the lower portion of a heavy, dark-blue floral spray, growing up, apparently, from a flowerpot. A section of foot rim and the contour of the sherd show that this was a 17th-century charger, probably dating from about 1680 (USNM 60.177,fig. 68a). The leaves are painted in the same manner as on a Lambeth fuddling cup.[190]A section of a plate with no foot rim includes an inner border which encircles the central panel design. It consists of two parallel lines with flattened spirals joined in a series between the lines. The glaze is crackled. This probably dates from the same period as the preceding sherd (USNM 60.99,fig. 68a). Sherds from a larger specimen, without decoration, have the same crackled enamel (USNM 59.2059). There is also a fragment decorated with small, blue, fernlike fronds, again suggesting late 17th-century origin (USNM 59.1756,fig. 68a). A small handle, the glaze of which has a pinkish cast, is decorated with blue dashes, and probably was part of a late 17th-century cup (USNM 59.1730,fig. 68a).

Several fragments of narrow rims from plates with blue bands probably date from the first quarter of the 18th century. A reconstructed plate with the simplest of stylized decoration was made at Lambeth about 1720 (USNM 59.1707,fig. 69). This plate has a wavy vine motif around its upward-flaring rim, in which blossoms are suggested by stylized pyramids of three to four blocks formed by brush strokes about ¼-inch wide, alternating with single blocks. The central motif consists of two crossed stems with a pyramid at each end and two diagonal, block brush strokes intersecting the crossed stems. A large fragment of a washstand bowl also has similar plain, block brush strokes along a border defined by horizontal lines—in this case a triplet of three strokes, one above two, alternating with a single block. Edges of similar brush strokes on the lower portion of the bowl remain on the fragment. Garner shows a Lambeth mug embodying this style of decoration combined with a suggestion of Chinoiserie around the waist. He ascribes to it a date of “about 1700,” although the block-brush-stroke device, with variations, was practiced until the 1760’s at Lambeth.[191]The Marlborough bowl fragment may be from one of the “2pottle Basons” bought by Mercer in 1744 (fig. 68b,ill. 28).

Illustration 31.—Delftware ointment pot. Bluish-white tin-enamel glaze. One-half. (USNM 59.1842.)Illustration 32.—Sherds of black basaltes ware. Same size. (USNM 59.2021.)

Another reconstructed plate, probably a Lambeth piece, has blue decoration in the Chinese manner. It dates from about 1730 to 1740 (USNM 59.1706,fig. 70). Several small bowl sherds seem to range from the early to the middle 18th century. Polychrome delft is represented by only three sherds, all apparently from bowls, and none well enough defined to permit identification.

There are several fragments of ointment pots, all 18th-century in shape. Three sherds of tin-enameled redware are probably continental European. Two of these have counterparts from early 17th-century contexts at Jamestown. A blue-decorated handle sherd from a large jug or posset pot is also 17th century.

The predominance of early dating of tin-enamel sherds and the relatively few examples of it from any period suggest that much of what was found either was used in the Port Town or was inherited by the Mercers, probably by Catherine, and used when they were first married. It also points up the fact that delftware early went out of fashion among well-to-do families.

English fine earthenwares.—The fine earthen tablewares introduced in Staffordshire early in the 18th century, largely in response to the new tea-drinking customs, are less well represented in the Marlborough artifacts than are those made later in the century. Apparently, the contemporary white salt-glazed ware was preferred.

Figure 71.—Whieldon-typetortoiseshell ware, about 1760.

Marbled ware.—The Staffordshire factories of Thomas Astbury and Thomas Whieldon were responsible for numerous innovations, including fine “marbled” wares in which clays of different colors were mixed together so as to form a veined surface. The technique itself was an old one, but its application in delicate tablewares was a novelty. Although Astbury was the earlier, it was Whieldon who exploited the technique after starting his potworks at Little Fenton about 1740.[192]From Marlboroughcome three meager sherds of marbled ware, probably from three different vessels (USNM 59.1625, 59.1748, 59.1851). They are brownish red with white veining under an amber lead glaze. A posset pot of these colors in the Victoria and Albert Museum is supposed, by Rackham, to date from about 1740.[193]

Black-glazed fine redware.—Whieldon made a black-glazed, fine redware, as did Maurice Thursfield at Jackfield in Shropshire.[194]A fragment of a black-glazed teapot handle was found at Marlborough, although the body is more nearly a hard grayish brown than red (USNM 59.1638).

Tortoiseshell ware.—Cream-colored earthenware was introduced as early as 1725, supposedly by Thomas Astbury, Jr. It was not until the middle of the century, however, that Whieldon began the use of clouded glaze colors over a cream-colored body. After 1756 Josiah Wedgwood became his partner and helped to perfect the coloring of glazes. In 1759 Wedgwood established his own factory, and both firms made tortoiseshell ware in the same molds used for making salt-glazed whiteware.[195]From Marlboroughthere are several sherds of gadroon-edge plates and basket-weave-and-lattice plates, as well as a piece of a teapot cover. Tortoiseshell ware was advertised in Boston newspapers from 1754 to 1772 (fig. 71).[196]

Figure 72.—Queensware, about 1800.

Queensware.—Josiah Wedgwood brought to perfection the creamware body about 1765, naming it “Queensware” after receiving Queen Charlotte’s patronage. Wedgwood took out no patents, so that a great many factories followed suit, notably Humble,Green & Company at Leeds in Yorkshire (later Hartley, Green & Company).[197]

Figure 73.—Fragment of Queensware platterwith portion of Wedgwood mark.

Figure 74.—English white earthenwares: a, “pearlware” with blue-and-white chinoiserie decoration, late 18th century; b, two whiteware sherds, one “sponged” in blue and touched with yellow, the other “sponged” in gray; c, shell-edge and polychrome wares, early 19th century; and d, polychrome Chinese porcelain.

Figure 75.—PolychromeChinese porcelain.

The Marlborough creamware sherds are all plain (with one exception), consisting of fragments of wavy-edge plates, bowls, and platters in Wedgwood’s “Catherine shape,” introduced about 1770, as well as mugs and pitchers (fig. 72). A piece of a large platter has impressed in it the letters WEDG, running up to the fracture. Below this is the number 1 (USNM 59.1997,fig. 73).

Whitewares used in the Federal period.—During the late 1770’s Wedgwood introduced his “pearlware,”[198]in which the yellow cast of the cream body was offset by a touch of blue. With the use of a nearly colorless glaze that was still slightly bluish, it was now possible to make a successful underglaze-blue decoration. These whitewares were made in three principal styles by Wedgwood’s many imitators, as well as by Wedgwood himself. The most familiar of these styles is the molded shell-edge ware, which was used in virtually every place to which Staffordshire wares penetrated after 1800. In a plain creamware version, this was another Wedgwood innovation of about 1765.[199]After 1780, the ware was white, with blue or green borders. The Wedgwood shell-edge design has a slightly wavy edge, and the shell ridges vary in depth and length. At least one Leeds version has a regular scalloped edge, like those found on several other Marlborough sherds. In the 19th century the ware became coarser and heavier, as well as whiter,and in some cases the shell edge was no longer actually molded but simply suggested by a painted border. Some variants were introduced that were not intended to be shell edge in design, but merely blue or green molded patterns. A Marlborough sherd from one of these has a gadrooned edge and molded swags and palmettes. Except for two late rims, painted but not molded, the shell-edge wares from Marlborough probably date from John Francis Mercer’s period in the late 1700’s and from John Bronaugh’s occupancy of the mansion during the Cooke period in the first decade of the 19th century (fig. 74c).

Figure 76.—Blue-and-whiteChinese porcelain.

The success of the new whiteware in permitting the use of underglaze blue resulted in a second class that is decorated in the Chinese manner, after the style of English delft and porcelain. This type was popular between 1780 and 1790, especially in the United States, where many whole specimens have survived above ground. Several sherds are among the Marlborough artifacts and appear to have come entirely from hollow forms, such as bowls and pitchers.[200]Sherds from a blue-and-white mug with molded designs, including the shell motif around the handle, have been found also.

Figure 77.—Blue-and-whiteChinese porcelain.

The third class of whiteware, which was heavilyfavored in the export trade, consisted of a gay, hand-decorated product, popular at the end of the 18th, and well into the 19th, century. It had pleasing variety, with floral designs in soft orange, green, brown, and blue, often with brown or green borders. A few examples of this later whiteware occur among the Marlborough artifacts (fig. 74b). One sherd from a small bowl is mottled in blue and touched with yellow (USNM 59.1805,fig. 74b). Another is also mottled, but in gray and blue. Such wares as the latter were made by Hartley, Green & Company at Leeds before the factory’s demise in 1820 (USNM 59.1950,fig. 74b).[201]

The transfer-printed wares that were so popular in America after 1820 are represented by a mere eight sherds, which is in accord with evidence that the mansion house was unoccupied or destroyed after 1819. Of these sherds, only five can be dated before 1830. Two are pink, transfer-printed sherds of about 1835-45, and one is gray-blue, dating from about 1840-1850.

Black basaltes ware.—Another late 18th-century innovation by Wedgwood, imitated by his competitors, was a fine stoneware with a black body, called black basaltes because of its resemblance to that mineral. A few sherds of this were found at Marlborough. Typically, they are glazed on the insidesonly. They postdate John Mercer by twenty or thirty years.

Illustration 33.—Blue-and-white Chinese-porcelain saucer (fig. 76, top left). One-half.Illustration 34.—Blue-and-white Chinese-porcelain plate (fig. 77, top left). One-fourth. (USNM 60.122.)

Chinese porcelain.—Oriental porcelain was introduced to the English colonies at a very early date, as we know from 17th-century contexts at Jamestown. As early as 1725 John Mercer acquired “1 China Punch bowl.” Presumably the “6 tea cups & Sawcers,” “2 chocolate cups,” and “2 custard cups” obtained by him the same year were also porcelain. Even before 1740, porcelain was occurring with increasing frequency in America. We are told that in 1734, for example, it can be calculated that about one million pieces of it left Canton for Europe.[202]Doubtless a large proportion was reexported to the colonists. William Walker, Mercer’s undertaker for the mansion, left at his death in 1750: “1 Crack’d China bowl,” “1 Quart Bowl 6/, 1 large Do12.6,” “6 China cups & Sawcers 5/,” and “12 China plates 15/.”

It is not surprising, therefore, that 18th-century China-trade porcelain sherds occurred with high incidence at Marlborough. Mercer’s accounts show that he acquired from Charles Dick in 1745 “1 Sett finest China” and “2 punch bowls.” From the archeological evidence it would appear that he had supplemented this several times over, perhaps after 1750 in the period for which we have no ledgers.

Most of the porcelain is blue and white. One group has cloudy, blurred houses and trees, impressionistic landscapes, and flying birds. This pattern occurs in fragments of teacups, small bowls, and a coffee cup. Another type has a border of diamonds within diamonds, elaborate floral designs delicately drawn, and a fine thin body. Similar sherds were found at Rosewell. At Marlborough the design survived in teacups, coffee cups, and saucers. There are several additional border designs, some associated with Chinese landscape subjects or human figures (figs. 76,ill. 24, andfig. 77,ill. 25). A coarse type with a crudely designed border hastily filled in with solid blue is represented in a partly reconstructed plate (USNM 60.122,fig. 77).

Polychrome porcelain is found in lesser amounts, although in almost as much variety. Three sherds of a very large punchbowl are decorated in red and blue. Fragments of a small bowl have delicate red medallions with small red and black human figures in their centers. Fine borders occur in red and black. Gold, yellow, and green floral patterns constitute another class (fig. 75).

Almost all the porcelain is of high quality, probably reaching a peak during Mercer’s middle and prosperous years between 1740 and 1760. We cannot expect to find any porcelain purchased after his death in 1768, and certainly none appears to be connected with the Federal period or with the so-called “Lowestoft” imported in the American China trade after the Revolution.

FOOTNOTES:[173]WatkinsandNoël Hume, op. cit. (footnote 54).[174]C. Malcolm Watkins, “North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th Century,” (paper 13 inContributions from the Museum of History and Technology: Papers 12-18, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 225, by various authors; Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1963), 1960.[175]The Russell site was excavated by members of the Sussex Archeological Society of Lewes, Delaware. Artifacts from the site are now in the Smithsonian Institution, as are those found by H. Geiger Omwake at the end of the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal.[176]John Eliot Hodgkins, F.S.A., andEdith Hodgkins,Examples of Early English Pottery, Named, Dated, and Inscribed(London, 1897), p. 57, fig. 128.[177]J. E. Messham, B.A., andK. J. Barton, “The Buckley Potteries,”Flintshire Historical Society Publications, vol. 16, pp. 31-87.[178]George Francis Dow,The Arts and Crafts in New England, 1764-1775(Topsfield, Mass., 1927), pp. 84, 85, 92.[179]MesshamandBarton, loc. cit. (footnote 177).[180]SeeBernard Rackham,Catalogue of the Glaisher Collection of Pottery & Porcelain in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge[England] Cambridge, England: (Cambridge University Press, 1935), vol. 2, pl. 150 B no. 2053; and vol. 1, p. 264.[181]I. Noël Hume, “Excavations at Rosewell, Gloucester County, Virginia, 1957-1959,” (paper 18 inContributions from the Museum of History and Technology: Papers 12-18, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 225, by various authors; Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1963), 1962.J. Paul Hudson, “Earliest Yorktown Pottery,”Antiques(New York, May 1958), vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 472-473;WatkinsandNoël Hume, loc. cit. (footnote 173).[182]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 180), vol. 1, p. 158.[183]W. B. Honey, “English Salt Glazed Stoneware,” [abstract]English Ceramic Circle Transactions(London, 1933), no. 1, p. 14.[184]Ibid.[185]Ibid.;Bernard Rackham,Early Staffordshire Pottery(London, n.d.), p. 20.[186]Bernard RackhamandHerbert Read,English Pottery(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924), p. 88.[187]Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), pp. 86-87.[188]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 92.[189]Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), p. 92.[190]A. M. Garner,English Delftware(New York: D. Van Nostrand and Co., Inc., 1948), fig. 23B.[191]Ibid., fig. 37.[192]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 28.[193]Ibid., pl. 57.[194]RackhamandRead, op. cit. (footnote 186), p. 96.[195]Ibid., p. 97.[196]Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), pp. 85-95.[197]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 29;RackhamandRead, op. cit. (footnote 186), pp. 107-109.[198]W. B. Honey,English Pottery and Porcelain(London: 1947), p. 89.[199]Wedgwood Catalogue of Bodies, Glazes and Shapes Current for 1940-1960(Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent: Warwick Savage, n.d.), pp. M1, M2.[200]“The Editor’s Attic” and cover:Antiques(New York, June 1928), vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 474-475.[201]RackhamandRead, op. cit. (footnote 186), p. 110.[202]J. A. Lloyd Hyde,Oriental Lowestoft(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), p. 23.

FOOTNOTES:

[173]WatkinsandNoël Hume, op. cit. (footnote 54).

[174]C. Malcolm Watkins, “North Devon Pottery and Its Export to America in the 17th Century,” (paper 13 inContributions from the Museum of History and Technology: Papers 12-18, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 225, by various authors; Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1963), 1960.

[175]The Russell site was excavated by members of the Sussex Archeological Society of Lewes, Delaware. Artifacts from the site are now in the Smithsonian Institution, as are those found by H. Geiger Omwake at the end of the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal.

[176]John Eliot Hodgkins, F.S.A., andEdith Hodgkins,Examples of Early English Pottery, Named, Dated, and Inscribed(London, 1897), p. 57, fig. 128.

[177]J. E. Messham, B.A., andK. J. Barton, “The Buckley Potteries,”Flintshire Historical Society Publications, vol. 16, pp. 31-87.

[178]George Francis Dow,The Arts and Crafts in New England, 1764-1775(Topsfield, Mass., 1927), pp. 84, 85, 92.

[179]MesshamandBarton, loc. cit. (footnote 177).

[180]SeeBernard Rackham,Catalogue of the Glaisher Collection of Pottery & Porcelain in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge[England] Cambridge, England: (Cambridge University Press, 1935), vol. 2, pl. 150 B no. 2053; and vol. 1, p. 264.

[181]I. Noël Hume, “Excavations at Rosewell, Gloucester County, Virginia, 1957-1959,” (paper 18 inContributions from the Museum of History and Technology: Papers 12-18, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 225, by various authors; Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1963), 1962.J. Paul Hudson, “Earliest Yorktown Pottery,”Antiques(New York, May 1958), vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 472-473;WatkinsandNoël Hume, loc. cit. (footnote 173).

[182]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 180), vol. 1, p. 158.

[183]W. B. Honey, “English Salt Glazed Stoneware,” [abstract]English Ceramic Circle Transactions(London, 1933), no. 1, p. 14.

[184]Ibid.

[185]Ibid.;Bernard Rackham,Early Staffordshire Pottery(London, n.d.), p. 20.

[186]Bernard RackhamandHerbert Read,English Pottery(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924), p. 88.

[187]Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), pp. 86-87.

[188]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 92.

[189]Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), p. 92.

[190]A. M. Garner,English Delftware(New York: D. Van Nostrand and Co., Inc., 1948), fig. 23B.

[191]Ibid., fig. 37.

[192]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 28.

[193]Ibid., pl. 57.

[194]RackhamandRead, op. cit. (footnote 186), p. 96.

[195]Ibid., p. 97.

[196]Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), pp. 85-95.

[197]Rackham, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 29;RackhamandRead, op. cit. (footnote 186), pp. 107-109.

[198]W. B. Honey,English Pottery and Porcelain(London: 1947), p. 89.

[199]Wedgwood Catalogue of Bodies, Glazes and Shapes Current for 1940-1960(Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent: Warwick Savage, n.d.), pp. M1, M2.

[200]“The Editor’s Attic” and cover:Antiques(New York, June 1928), vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 474-475.

[201]RackhamandRead, op. cit. (footnote 186), p. 110.

[202]J. A. Lloyd Hyde,Oriental Lowestoft(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), p. 23.

BOTTLES

Round beverage bottles.—Bottles of dark-green glass were used in the colonial period for wine, beer, rum, and other potables. Although some wines and liquors were shipped in the bottle, they were distributed for the most part in casks, hogsheads, and “pipes” before 1750. John Mercer recorded the purchases of several pipes of wine—kinds unspecified—a pipe being a large or even double-size hogshead. He purchased rum by the gallon, in quantities that ranged from 2 quarts in 1744 to “5 galls Barbadoes Spirits” in 1745 and a “hhd 107½ gall Rum” in 1748.

Bottles were used largely for household storage and for the serving of liquors. They were kept filled in the buttery as a convenience against going to the cellar each time a drink was wanted. Bottles usually were brought directly to the table,[203]although the clear-glass decanter was apparently regarded as a more genteel dispenser. Mercer, like his contemporaries, bought his own bottles, as when he purchased “2 doz bottles” from John Foward in 1730. The previous year he had acquired a gross of corks, which would customarily have been inserted in his bottles and secured by covering with cloth, tying around the lips or string rings with packthread, and sealing with warm resin and pitch.

Some wines were purchased in the bottle. In 1726 Mercer bought “2 doz & 8 bottles Claret” and “1 doz Canary” from Alexander McFarlane. In 1745 he charged Overwharton Parish for “2 bottles Claret to Acquia,” apparently for communion wine. Whether all this was shipped from the vineyards in bottles, or whether Mercer brought his own bottles to be filled from the storekeepers’ casks is not revealed.

An insight into the kinds of alcoholic drinks consumed in Virginia in Mercer’s early period is given in the official price-list for the sale of alcoholic beverages set forth in the York County Court Orders in 1726:[204]

This Court do Sett the Rate Liquors as followeth:

£s.d.LiquorsEach diet1RatedLodging for each person7½Stable Room & Fodder for each horse prnight11¼Each Gallon corn7½Wine of Virgaproduce p Quart5French Brandy prQuart4Sherry & Canary Wine prQuart44½Red & white Lisbon prQuart & Claret31½Madera Wine prQuart110½Fyall wine prQuart13French Brandy Punch prQuart2Rum & VirgaBrandy prQuart3¾Rum punch & flip prQuart 7½dmade with white sugar9Virgamidling beer & Syder prQuart3¾Fine bottled Syder prQuart13Bristoll Beer Bottles1Arrack prQuart10

Figure 78.—Wine bottle, sealed with initials of John and Catherine Mercer, dated 1737 (seep. 148). Found in Structure D refuse pit. Height, 8 inches. (See alsoill. 37.)

It will be noted that Bristol beer was sold by the bottle, probably just as it was shipped, and “Fine bottled Syder” apparently came in quart bottles. Probably the wines were dispensed from casks in wine measures. Mercer bought Citron water in bottles, a half dozen at a time, as he did “Mint, Orange flower & Tansey Do,” in 1744.

Round beverage bottles ranged in shape from, roughly, the form of a squat onion at the beginning of the 18th century to narrow cylindrical bottles towards the end of the century. The earliest bottles were free-blown without the constraint of a mold, hence there were many variations in shape. After about 1730 bottles were blown into crude clay molds which imparted a roughly cylindrical or taper-sided contour below sloping shoulders and necks. These marked the first recognition of binning as a way of storing wines in bottles laid on their sides. About 1750 theBristol glasshouses introduced cylindrical brass molds.[205]From then on the problem of stacking bottles in bins was solved and virtually all round beverage bottles thenceforward were cylindrical with long necks.

Illustration 35.—Beverage bottle. First quarter, 18th century. Reconstruction based on whole bottle found at Rosewell. One-half. (USNM 59.1717.)Illustration 36.—Above, beverage-bottle seal, with initials of John and Catherine Mercer, matching the tobacco-cask mark used for tobacco grown at the “home plantation” (Marlborough). Seefigures 8and79. Same size. (USNM 59.1689.)Illustration 37.—At right, complete beverage bottle, dated 1737, with initials of John and Catherine Mercer (fig. 78). Same size. (USNM 59.1688.)

At Marlborough the earliest form of wine bottle is represented by a squat neck and a base fragment (USNM 59.1717,ill. 35), both matching onion-shaped bottles of the turn of the century, such as one excavated at Rosewell (USNM 60.660). Except for these fragments, the oldest form from Marlborough may be seen in the complete bottle found in refuse pit D (USNM 59.1688;fig. 78,ill. 37). This bottle is typical of the transitional form, sealed examples of which regularly occur bearing dates in the 1730’s. Its sides are straight for about three inches above the curve of the base, tapering slightly to the irregular shoulder that curves in and up to a neck with wedge-shaped string ring. Two inches above the base is a seal, bearing the initialsIC.Mabove a decorative device and the date 1737. The arrangement of initials exactly matches that found on Mercer’s tobacco-cask seals (p. 30andfootnote 89) indicating the “home plantation” at Marlborough.

Seals were applied by dropping a gather of glass on the hot surface of a newly blown bottle, then pressing into this deposit of glass a brass stamp bearing a design, initials, date, etc. Three similar seals from broken bottles also were found. The same arrangement of initials, but with no date or device of any kind, occurs on seven different seals (fig. 79,ills. 36and37).

Figure 79.—Bottle seals.(Seeill. 36.)

The diameter of the base of the sealed beverage bottle is 5½ inches, the widest diameter occurring on any bottle fragments from Marlborough, excepting the early specimen mentioned above. Bases in gradually decreasing dimensions vary from this size to 2¾ inches. Six bases run from 5 inches to 5½ inches; 11 are over 4½ inches and up to 5 inches; 4 are over 4 inches and up to 4½ inches; 3 are over 3½ inches and up to 4 inches; none, except the smallest of 2¾ inches, found in a mid-19th-century deposit, is less than 3¾ inches.

Beverage-bottle bases

USNM No.Inchesin DiameterProvenience59.16885½Refuse pit D59.17176Structure F, firing chamber59.17174½Structure F, firing chamber59.17174¾Structure F, firing chamber59.17174⅞Structure F, firing chamber59.17175Structure F, firing chamber59.17175⅛Structure F, firing chamber59.17932¾S.W. corner, Structure B59.18705¼Wall D, trench59.19184Structure E, N. side, Room X59.19213¾Debris area, N.E. corner, Structure E59.19575Structure F, N.E. corner of pavement59.19575Structure F, N.E. corner of pavement59.19984¾Structure E, N. of fireplace, Room X59.19984¾Structure E, N. of fireplace, Room X59.20073⅞North of Structure E, lowest level59.20074¼North of Structure E, lowest level60.834½Wall E, gateway60.1034¾Trench along Wall E60.1175⅛Junction of Walls A-I and A-II60.1174⅝Junction of Walls A-I and A-II60.1205½Trash pit no. 260.1235½Trash pit no. 2

Since beverage-bottle diameters diminished from about 5 inches in the 1750’s and 1760’s to about 4 inches in the 1770’s and 1780’s and to 3½ inches in the 1790’s and early 1800’s, the peak of their incidence at Marlborough occurs between 1750 and 1770, the period of greatest opulence in the Mercer household.

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