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| HOME > North American Sites |
North American SitesMost ceramics from the Toulousain area on colonial sites have been found in New France and Acadia. Only a few examples come from the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland or Louisiana. None have been identified in the French West Indies yet. We mapped a few 17th- and 18th-century sites where the ceramics have been located throughout a detailed literature review. The Atlantic port of Bordeaux was one of their departure points throughout the period. Toulousain ceramics have been recovered on archaeological sites in the city. The French ship Le Machault that sank in Chaleur Bay, Canada, had also sailed from Bordeaux on April 10th, 1760, with Toulousain wares onboard, i.e. Giroussens and Lomagne tablewares, cooking pots and tableware decorated with slip dots (see Barton 1977). Loewen (2004) stresses the role of Bordeaux early on, in the 16th-century Atlantic market, and points out to the concurrence between the Toulousain potters and the Saintonge workshops, which were more closely tied to the port of La Rochelle. In North America, tableware from Giroussens is the most common Toulousain type found on historical sites, followed by the cooking pots from Cox. Painted tableware from the Lomagne area is less frequent. Slip dot decorated wares seem to be very rare. Dates extracted from these colonial sites are important, given the lack of other accurate dating. Cox cooking pots were found early in America: in a 16th-century context, at the site of Red Bay (Gusset 1990: type RB-3.1, cited in Brassard and Leclerc 2001: 35). They were also part of the kitchen equipment of the fort of Pentagoet, in Maine, during its final phase of occupation, from 1670 to 1674 (see Faulkner and Faulkner 1987). Cooking pots were also identified in several 17th- and 18th-century contexts. Some were found on the 1760 wreck of the Machault and at the Estèbe house, some dating from before 1752, and others from 1752 to 1800. Painted wares have mostly been recovered from 18th-century sites. Their earliest occurence in North America is at Champlain's Second Habitation, place Royale, in a context dated from 1701 (Lueger 1978, cited in Lapointe and Lueger 1997). Giroussens painted wares also came from the 1752-1800 privy of the Estèbe house (see Mousette 1996). Contexts vary; painted tablewares and cooking pots were used in the households of wealthy merchants and other members of the colonial elite at place Royale. Two Giroussens plates and three cooking pots were found in the privy of the Estèbe house. They were associated with numerous local earthenwares, and various English wares: Staffordshire slipware, creamware, pearlware, and agate ware (Moussette 1996). Interestingly, the cooking pots were the only cooking earthenwares of the assemblage, while probate inventories mention other ceramic forms, i.e. pans and food-warmers. The Giroussens plates on the other hand were found with other coarse earthenware plates, i.e. some slipwares (Staffordshire, Saintonge) and some Albisola. Both Lomagne and Giroussens plates were discarded at maison Perthuis, another house at place Royale. Toulousain tableware were excavated in military forts like Fort Chambly and Fort Michilimackinac, and the QuŽbec monastery of RŽcollets. In such settings, it is often assumed that the wares belonged to officers and persons of higher status within the community. Giroussens tableware were also found in non-elite households, for example in the 18th-century Acadian Belleisle house (maison 1). Not surprisingly, Toulousain earthenwares were abundant and varied at the Louisbourg fortress.
Barton, Kenneth J.
Brassard Michel and Myriam Leclerc
Faulkner, Alaric and Gretchen F. Faulkner
Gusset, Gérard
Lapointe, Camille and Richard Lueger
Loewen, Brad
Lueger, Richard
Moussette, Marcel
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| © 2006 Myriam Arcangeli |