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DuVal Pottery Destroyed March 18, 2002
by Eric A. Powell

[image] Dave Hazzard, director of the Threatened Sites Program for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, examines tiles in situ from the 1808 Richmond tile manufactory. DuVal had the exclusive right to manufacture in Virginia, and other states, Harwood's much improved patent tile for covering houses. (Courtesy Dave Hazzard) [LARGER IMAGE]

On a Sunday visit to Richmond, Virginia, archaeologist and ceramics expert Robert Hunter decided to check up on the site, where, ca. 1790, one Benjamin DuVal established a pottery making ceramics similar in style to those produced in New York. Driving by the site, located amid a complex of nineteenth-century warehouses, Hunter was horrified to find that the entire block where the pottery once stood was being bulldozed. Collectors were already making their way through the rubble, gathering sherds.

John Kille, assistant director Lost Towns Project Anne Arundle County, Maryland, holding kiln furniture (and vessel) used for stacking items in kiln for firing. (Courtesy Dave Hazzard) [LARGER IMAGE] [image]

Acting quickly, Hunter was able to gather a group of over a dozen archaeologists, led by David Hazzard of the Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks, to salvage what they could. "It really is a horror story in terms of what could have been recovered," says Hunter. Though volunteers were able to recover about 1,000 pounds of sherds and located the remains of the kiln, Hunter points out that in the time it took the group to organize, a pit 20 feet in diameter full of pottery sherds was hauled away to the dump. "We missed quite a bit," says Hunter.

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Brown stoneware fragment (left) bearing the maker's mark, B. DuVal & Co. Richmond. Mosaic of stoneware sherds (center) from the Benjamin DuVal Pottery in Richmond (note the marked piece in the center). Gray stoneware piece (right) with incised foliate design filled with cobalt blue. Rare for Southern potters, more typical of New England stoneware producers. (Courtesy Dave Hazzard)

Still wondering how the site could have been destroyed, Hunter notes that the Division of Historic Landmarks, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and the Virginia Preservation Alliance were all within walking distance of the DuVal pottery. A grocery store is now being built on the site.

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© 2002 by the Archaeological Institute of America
archive.archaeology.org/online/news/duval.html

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