CHAPTER V.
EARLY POTTING IN AMERICA.
T HE potter's art was probably first practised in this
country by the earlier emigrants in Virginia. Numer.
ous small potteries sprung up to supply the modest
needs of the simple-minded inhabitants, which furnished
coarse earthenware utensils for culinary and other pur-
poses. While such crude wares were made to a consider-
able extent, no record of any one of the primitive kilns,
which were insignificant affairs, has descended to us. The
older chroniclers seem to have completely ignored, as
unworthy of note, the existence of an art in their midst
which had already become familiar to them before leaving
their native soil. Previous to 1649 there were a number
of small potters in Virginia who carried on a thriving
business in the communities in which they operated; and
the first Dutch settlers in New York brought with them a
practical knowledge of potting, and are said to have made
a ware equal in quality to that produced in the ancient
town of Delft,-hardly a white ware, but such as could be
produced from the natural clays which abounded in the
country. Prof. Isaac Broome, of the Beaver Falls Art
Tile Works, informs me that the remains of an old kiln
53