Rolled Rim Forms at 38ED221, The Joseph Baynham Pottery

Rolled Rim Forms at 38ED221

Mark M. Newell

Georgia Archaeological Institute Research Manuscript #133

Acknowledgement is due to Betsy Bloomer, archival researcher at GAI for her work in locating documents cited in this paper.

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 A recent paper focused on the distinctive ‘flower pot’ rim style of many of the bowl forms recovered at 38ED221, from the Joseph Gregory Baynham occupation 1872[1]-1906[2]. The following paper covers additional rim styles found at the site that are loosely categorized as ‘rolled rim’ styles. This refers to the technique of rolling the rim as it is formed during throwing so as to form a lip on the outside of the rim.  Many of these types of rims appear to have been hand-formed, some are clearly tool-formed while others include incised decoration as part of the rim formation (Fig.1).

The rims covered in this paper appear to have been mostly confined to larger capacity storage vessels although they were also used on bowl forms. As can be seen from the illustrations, most of the wares on which these rim forms appear have a high kaolin body clay content and Albany slip glazes. This would tend to date these vessels to the latter years of production at the Baynham pottery works. There are two exceptions to this rule, one vessel that had a rare alkaline glaze interior (Fig.2), and another with a Bristol slip glaze interior (Fig. 3 & Fig. 4). The Bristol slip interior appears to have been frequently, but not widely, used based on the percentage present in the collection of sherds analyzed to date. Precise seriation of the rim forms is more difficult to achieve based on the lack of distinct strata in waster piles. As a result a general temporal range of 1880 to 1906 is based on clay body type and glaze type as indicated above.

In general, the exterior glaze used on these wares was Albany slip and these range from well fired, mature glaze to underfired glazes that tend to flake from the underlying body. Some interior glazes were alkaline glaze or Bristol slip as noted above, some appear to be a mix of ash and Albany slip glazes.

The upper surface of all rims appear to have been made unglazed, glazing occasionally covering a section of the rim, clearly a result of less than careful glazing rather than intent.

Rolled Rim Sherd typology based on analysis of 1244 rim sherds:

Figure 1: Illustration of rolled rim forms based on survey of recovered sherds.

Figure 2: Reticulated ash glaze on inside of bowl.

Figure 3: Exterior glaze on four gallon storage jar.