Recent excavations of ceramics at historic sites such as Jamestown and Plymouth indicate that the seaboard colonists of the 17th century enjoyed a higher degree of comfort and more esthetic furnishings than heretofore believed. In addition, these findings have given us much new information about the interplay of trade and culture between the colonists and their mother country.

            This article represents the first work in the author’s long-range study of ceramics used by the English colonists in America.

            The Author: C. Malcolm Watkins is curator of cultural history, United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution.