[Illustration: Figure 4.--YORKTOWN STONEWARE MUG FRAGMENT marred by kiln drippings lodged above the handle. The fragment was found in Williamsburg. Height of sherd 4 centimeters.]
The treatment of the single-reeded handle on the Challis site mug equals the best English examples, being thin and of sufficient size to accommodate three fingers, with the top of its curve remaining below the edge of the rim so that the thumb cannot slip over it. In addition, the lower terminal is folded back on itself and impressed. While it has often been said that the signature of a potter is found in the shaping of his rims and his handles, we must remember that in a large commercial pottery the person who applies the handles often is not the same workman as he who throws the pot. This explains the considerable variety among the handles of supposed Yorktown tankards, some of them very skillfully fashioned and applied, others appallingly crude. It is inconceivable that all can be the work of a single craftsman.
[Illustration: Figure 5.--YORKTOWN STONEWARE MUG, found in James City County, which was discarded about 1730. Height 12.5 centimeters; capacity 17 fluid ounces.]
The iron-oxide slip into which the upper part of the body and handle of the Challis site mug was dipped provided the vessel with a pleasing purplish-to-green mottling when struck by the salt, but, compared to its English prototypes, the variations of color and the unevenness of the size of the mottling label it a product of inferior firing. Nevertheless, in criticizing the Yorktown stoneware, we might remember Dr. Johnson's comment on women preachers, whom he likened to a dog walking on its hind legs, saying: "It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."
[Illustration: Figure 6.--SILVER REPRODUCTION of the matrix used by the Yorktown potter to apply unofficial excise stamps. Height 1.45 centimeters.]
[Illustration: Figure 7.--EXAMPLES OF W.R. STAMPS on Yorktown stoneware mugs. Right, from below the rim; left, on the underside of the base. Enlarged.]
On the evidence of the many fragments of Yorktown mugs found in Williamsburg excavations, it may be supposed that the Challis example was of above-average quality. Many of the Williamsburg sherds are both badly overfired and poorly mottled, owing either to inadequate salting or to the use of a slip of the wrong consistency. The much-restored specimen shown in figure 9 was found in a mid-18th-century rubbish deposit[254] and apparently had belonged to John Coke, who kept tavern in Williamsburg east of the Public Gaol. In this example, the intended mottled effect has become a solid band of purple, and the body color below has turned dark gray. I had long supposed that both were the result of overfiring. Experiments by Mr. Maloney, however, clearly showed that the gray body may result from a reducing atmosphere as readily as by excessive temperature, while the purple zone could be due to the slip's being too thick. Two test mugs fired side by side at a temperature of 2300° F., using thick and thin slips of iron oxide, produced the solid-purple band and the brown mottle respectively.