Stoneware Oyster Jar

Stoneware oyster jar used to store pickled and preserved oysters (removed from their shells) for shipment to the West Indies and elsewhere. The jars were sealed with a cork and the well surrounding the cork was then filled with wax. The verticle marks around the base were made by vessels adjacent to the jar in the kiln during firing. The paste (or fabric) of an adjacent vessel is visible adhering to the base of the vessel as well.

The oyster jar is one of two excavated from the cellar of 263 Pearl Street (nee Queen), a three-story brick dwelling and storefront that contained a middle-class boarding house run first by a Mrs. Riddle, followed by Widow Williams between 1798 and 1815/16 when the building was demolished, and the street to the west was widened and renamed Fulton in honor of engineer Robert Fulton (the inventor of the steamship). 263 Pearl Street is now 40 Fulton Street. 

• Object number

  81.169

• Date made

  - 1816

• Animals/objects

  Oyster Jar

• Category

  Household

• Class

  Ceramic

• Functions

  Food/Condiment Storage

• Material

  Stoneware

• Context

  Boarding House Deposit 263 Pearl Street (Feature 42; FS 81)

• Forms

  Complete

• Ware types

  Salt Glazed