Undecorated and unglazed sherds
As we don't generally have the opportunity to view objects in their unglazed 'biscuit' state, it seemed worth adding a standalone page on the subject. In particular, pottery marks on unglazed items are much crisper and easier to read. See three examples below with the full sherd shown beneath them. One has a mark resembling a Maltese Cross, which has not yet been recorded on a complete item.
Below, two sherds with the more common horseshoe impressed mark. Glazed example shown beside them.
These 'white wares' are more finely potted that their brown ware equivalents and, as discussed, made from the whiter Devon or Cornish clay, brought back as ballast by the coal ships. These finer items were likely intended for decoration, but became early casualties in the firing process. Below two sherds unearthed in 2018.
Below left is a sherd from a very large basin like the one left above. The flat rim of the second sherd below perhaps indicates it came from a chamber pot. To its right, a sherd from a smaller, shallow bowl.
Below left and centre, the distinctive and finely turned base of a sucrier. This object likely had a pointed/conical lid with a circular knop on top. The below right sherd is the base of a small bowl.
Although not a perfect match, the profile of the sherd below, presumably from the foot of a mug, is similar to the silver lustre example shown beside it.
Below left, the lid of a teapot, for which Norman has been lucky enough to find a match. The decoration on the teapot matches that found on painted sherds from the site.
Unglazed sherds were found at the site with transfer decoration (see below). See more examples on the Transferware page. Transfers could be applied either under or over a glaze. Underglaze transfers, once glazed, have a different quality to those applied overglaze. When applied directly onto biscuit pottery, the transfer is absorbed by the body of the pot and less prone to wear from scratching. My guess is it was easier work transferring onto glazed items, but increased the likelihood imperfections (see here for a comparison of underglaze and overglaze imprints on a Tyne plaque). It seems probable that North Hylton produced items with both underglaze and overglaze transfers.
Below unglazed sherds with moulded borders. To the left, a typical daisy plate. I don't yet have an Dixon Austin examples with that border. However, Dixon, Phillips & Co produced a series of plates with months of the year that have daisy borders. The border on the other shards is a bit more unusual, and Norman has managed to match it to a Dixon Austin impressed plate made for the German market. NB a large proportion of the wares made in the North East were made to fulfil contracts for Northern European markets.
