The taverns in Colonial America served many alcoholic concoctions, flip, punch, grog, and my favorites...bounce and sling!
I don't have a really good recipe for bounce, but I suspect every tavern keeper had his own secret punch mixture of spirits, citrus, spices, sugar and water. Sharing a bowl like the one pictured here, and I mean passing it around and drinking from the same vessel, was considered polite... and the liquid salutations could last awhile... everyone was toasted; the King, the pretty barmaid, dead war heroes and the like. I made a thoughtful toast at a recent birthday and my friend seemed embarrassed by the compliment... perhaps it was because I was the only one drinking spirits! Everyone else had a diet coke. I frankly don't care who reads these descriptions... but I feel quite certain diet coke will never "rise to the occasion" of cementing the bonds of friendship!
This beautiful bowl was made in either London or Bristol around 1740. The decoration is quite similar to a pair of flower bricks at Historic Deerfield.
Condition: Excellent antique condition. Some glaze loss on the rim and three smudges made by the artisan while decorating exterior.

See "Recent Finds"

Slipware dish. This is a timeless abstract design executed in cream slip over a dark brown slip ground. Even Picasso tried his hand at slip decorated pottery... but I think the anonymous potter who crafted this dish was the better. It has a coggle edge ( " pie crust" if you are hungry ) and was made in the Midlands or northern England in the late 18th century.
Condition: Excellent antique condition. Some lines and small flakes in the glaze only.

I have a splendid friend named Ione, who dips an elegant pen into a small jar of ink and transfers her vast knowledge to paper. The rewarding symbiotic nature of the process far outweighs the possibility of making a mess... her pen makes noise...which to me signifies the end of an intellectual process that allows not for editing. My laptop is far too quiet... and my spell check contains only a third of the words Ione knows!
This blue and white decorated inkwell has the original font. The well is decorated with a multitude of foliate sprigs resembling fern branches and budding flowers and the overall shape is a three leaf clover. The font has a band of simple dashes spinning around the edge. Continental. ca. 1730-1760
Condition: Excellent antique condition with some glaze loss on the edges of both the well and font.
Ex. Shelley Collection

Press molded buff clay with coggle edge and trailed combed slip decoration. I suppose these seem ubiquitous due to the fact that this form was made by many English potters for over a hundred years and examples have been found in an 18th century context throughout Colonial America. I have found shards on my own property during excavation in North Berwick, Maine. In recent times the dating of these deep dishes have been expanded. I think this example was made somewhere in England, possibly Staffordshire, in the late 18th century.
Ca. 1780
Condition: Excellent antique condition. Two small hairlines and a crease in the glaze made during the firing... which can be seen in the photo.
Ex. Wanetta Bartholomew Collection; Hollis Brodrick, Antiquarian.

Ale jug with blue and white decoration depicting trees and rocks...etc
18th c. Dutch

This vibrant polychrome decorated dish was made in Holland in the mid 18th century. Sometimes this type of decoration is referred to as the fish bone pattern for the design elements at the four points of the compass. I like the soft mint green color of the leaves... which I don't often see in Dutch earthenware. 18th century. Marked De Paauw / Holland (see detail photo)
Condition: Very good. The normal glaze loss along the rim.

So called fishbone pattern.