Excavated Colonial Bowl Shows Early Technological Breakthrough
by John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Museum of the American Revolution in Old City is on-track for an April 19th opening.
Artifacts unearthed during an archaeological excavation of the site a couple years ago continue to reveal amazing secrets.
It was first catalogued as a stoneware slop bowl, but after further inspection it's been upgraded to a porcelain punch bowl from the 1770s.
It's been called a significant find; a science and technology breakthrough.
"This is the first documented piece of hard-pasted porcelain produced in colonial America," said Scott Stephenson PhD., Vice President of collections, exhibitions, and programming at the Museum of the American Revolution.
"The Chinese were capable of producing these incredible translucent white, hard, paste porcelain, that every one in Europe was trying to figure out the secret. There were a lot of efforts to try to find sources of clay in America that would allow them to do this, and so there were written records in the 18th century that people have succeeded," said Stephenson.
The punch bowl will be showcased at the New York Ceramics and Glass Fair later this week.
