In Pursuit of a Good Glass and Good Company
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2017 In Pursuit of a Good Glass and Good Company Esther Louise Rimer University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Rimer, Esther Louise, "In Pursuit of a Good Glass and Good Company. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4897 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Esther Louise Rimer entitled "In Pursuit of a Good Glass and Good Company." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Anthropology. Barbara J. Heath, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: David G. Anderson, Gerald Schroedl Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) In Pursuit of a Good Glass and Good Company A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Esther Louise Rimer August 2017 Acknowledgements Dr. Barbara Heath was incredibly patient and encouraging. Brad Hatch and Lauren McMillan were very forthcoming with explanations of their understanding of Nomini Hall contexts, and Clifts data, plus degree writing commiseration. I have much appreciation for my defense committee members, Dr. Gerald Schroedl and Dr. David Anderson for their willingness to read drafts and schedule a defense within just a few weeks. Thank you also to the former librarian at the Corning Museum of Glass Amy deSimon for pulling loads of books for me, the former Corning Museum Curator of American Glass, Jane Spillman for showing me the whereabouts of lead glass exhibits, and Dwight Lanmon and Hugh Wilmott for their correspondence about folded feet. I also thank Dr. Julia King and Scott Strickland for giving me access to the glass from so many Potomac area sites. Hearty thanks go out to Dee DeRoche at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the curators Becky Morehouse and Sarah Rivers- Cofield from the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum and Karen Louvar at Stratford Hall for allowing me so much time and space to examine glass under a glowing lamp. Silas Hurry at Historic St. Mary's City kindly let me examine early colonial Maryland glass from St. John’s, as well as the cabinets full of Lois Green Carr’s probate files stored at St. Mary’s City. This research would have been a lot tougher to pull together if not for a Patricia Black travel scholarship from the University of Tennessee. A wonderful grant from the University of Tennessee Graduate Student Senate enabled me to go to the 2013 Society for Historical Archaeology Conference in Leicester, England, which later led me to work with collections in Maryland. I’d also like to thank Spider, Laura, and my family for their patience in listening to me say “I’m finishing this thesis this semester…” for 3 years. And Mary W… thanks, Lady, for talking with me through the last year. ii Abstract While glass appears rather homogeneous compared to ceramics and pipes, these small bits of amorphous solid silica can still reveal hidden information when aspects of their chemical composition are tested using a means as simple as short-wave UV light or as complex as X-Ray Fluorescence. Using short-wave UV light and a comparative approach, this thesis reevaluates archaeological table glass collections from Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck of Virginia dating from the mid-17th century to the early 18th century to find evidence for the presence and absence of English lead glass (flint glass). Using these data, the patterns in access, acquisition, and use of glass tableware in this Chesapeake region show a steep difference in the occurrence of lead glass in assemblages before and after the turn of the 18th century. Before 1700, lead glass at these sites tends to comprise less than half the tableware assemblages, yet on sites with occupations extending into the 18th century, more than three quarters of the glassware contains lead. Some inhabitants of this region may have begun consuming English lead glass by the 1680s, primarily in the form of drinking glasses and other beverage related tableware. By the 1690s, lead glass was taking over table space, and by 1700, it was the dominant type of glass tableware. iii Table of Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Towards a “Flint glass”: Chemistry, Manufacture, and History ........................5 Glass ...........................................................................................................................7 Technology and Process ............................................................................................10 Forms .........................................................................................................................14 English lead Glass ......................................................................................................17 The Magic Flint Glass Formula .................................................................................20 Selling Flint Glass ......................................................................................................24 Health Impact .............................................................................................................25 Chapter 2: Consuming Glassware ........................................................................................26 Consumerism and Consumption ................................................................................26 Luxurious Glass .........................................................................................................30 Chesapeake Drinking Culture ....................................................................................33 Sources of Glassware .................................................................................................38 Chapter 3: The Beverages and Uses.....................................................................................45 Domestic Beverages...................................................................................................46 Imported Alcohol .......................................................................................................50 Chapter 4: Placing Lead Tableware on the Colonial Table ................................................57 Identifying Glass Tableware ......................................................................................57 Functions and modifiers .............................................................................................61 Distinction by Source .................................................................................................65 Styles and Dates .........................................................................................................67 Venetian Glassware and its Nigh-indistinguishable Continental Kin........................68 Stems ..........................................................................................................................74 Glass Vessel sans stem...............................................................................................81 Glass Candlesticks .....................................................................................................83 Glass Weight ..............................................................................................................84 Use and Storage of Vessel Glass ...............................................................................85 Where is Lead Glass in the Colonies? Prior Research ...............................................86 Historical Accounts ....................................................................................................90 Chapter 5: Methods and Chemistry .....................................................................................102 Why UV light? ...........................................................................................................103 Chemical Analysis .....................................................................................................107 Quantification and Minimum Vessels .......................................................................109 Chapter 6: Site Backgrounds ................................................................................................111 Maryland ..........................................................................................................................111 18CV60: Angelica Knoll ...........................................................................................113 18CV83: King’s Reach ..............................................................................................114 iv 18ST329 and 18ST233: Old Chapel Field