Creamware Basin

These six creamware body, base, and rim sherds likely originally composed a basin. The fragments suggest that the basin had had a rim diameter of 35 cm and a base diameter (at the footring) of 14 cm. This type of basin would have been accompanied by an ewer (a special type of pitcher for pouring water into a basin) and was used for personal washing, prior to the development of indoor plumbing. These sherds were excavated from a cistern associated with the Pearl Street House, a hotel ca. 1825-1853. This set of fragments is the most complete example of this vessel form found in the cistern deposit, but a number of other similar but non-matching rim fragments (BGC V#49, 50, 51) suggest that there were multiple basins of this type discarded within the cistern.

• Object number

  1164.6, 1164.16, 1164.11, 1102.16, 1114.2, 1136.12

• Date made

  1770 - 1890s

• Dimensions

  Rim Diameter 35 cm

• Animals/objects

  Basin

• Category

  Sanitary

• Class

  Ceramic

• Material

  Refined Earthenware

• Context

  Lot 26*, Test Cut AP, Cistern Deposit: Grayish, Yellowish and Rust Brown Silty Sand in Feature (624.1164)

• Forms

  Base/Body/Rim

• Ware types

  Creamware

• Techniques

  Press Molded