Ceramics

Artistically considered, the ornamented earthenware of the Dutch potteries follows the lines of earliest known European potteries, and its "slip-decoration" or "sgraffito" which was developed in Southern Europe, particularly in England and in Italy.

Pie plates are common with the Pennsylvania-Dutch potter.

Clays were dug from local river banks. The plug mill was powered by a horse. The slabs were then rolled with a rolling pin until they were smooth and to a particular thickness (Powell Pennsylvania German Pottery Tools & Processes 20).

Early potters created wares almost entirely from products found in their local area. The end result is the clay is burned and is extraordinarily fresh and attractive (Guilland Early American Folk Pottery 12, 30, 120, 141, 270). f small family-type enterprises (Smith, Pottery A Utilitarian Folk Craft 1).

The pie plate was the most general article of sgraffito work, and the most widely distributed. The Pennsylvania-Dutch tulip design has been found on about 35 different objects of decoration, beginning with barn designs, and continuing on to pottery (Cooper Ten Thousand Years of Pottery 214-225).

The tulip motif appears positively everywhere in Dutch art--even on the barn designs and on the walls. The wares were made for and by “common” folk. Horse drawn wagons carried the clay to the potters shed, where it was ground by a plug mill. This is the how the potter would shape the clay into balls of an appropriate size and slap these flat with an instrument called a batter or pounder.