New Discoveries at Jamestown | Page 8

veined leaves, rosettes, flowers, geometric designs, a lion, and a face or mask. Many fragments of molded plaster cornices have also been excavated. Broken oyster shells are distinguishable in the decorated plasterwork, indicating that the pargeting was done at Jamestown.
House Furnishings
Busy conquering a stubborn wilderness, the first Jamestown settlers had only a few things to make their houses cosy and cheerful. In most cases, their worldly goods consisted of a few cooking utensils, a change of clothing, a weapon or two, and a few pieces of homemade furniture. However, between 1607 and 1612, George Percy was generously outfitted with some necessities as well as much fine apparel and numerous luxury items (including a feather bed) by his brother the Ninth Earl of Northumberland, as published records of the Earl's expenditures for George show. Other persons of gentle birth and position quite probably enjoyed similar goods.
After the early years of hardship had passed, the colonists began to acquire possessions for a more pleasant living; and by 1650 the better houses were equipped with most of the necessities of life of those times, as well as a few luxuries of comfortable living.
FURNITURE
Very little furniture was brought over from England during the early years of the colony. Perhaps a few chests and Bible boxes were imported, but most of the large pieces of furniture, such as tables, chairs, bedsteads, chests-of-drawers, cupboards, benches, and cradles would have been made in Virginia. Woods commonly used included pine, cedar, walnut, maple, and oak.
[Illustration: FURNITURE HARDWARE AND ACCESSORIES FOUND. MUCH OF THE FURNITURE USED IN THE JAMESTOWN HOUSES WAS MADE IN VIRGINIA.]
Furniture hardware and accessories excavated at Jamestown include hinges, locks, drawer pulls, chest handles, escutcheon plates, upholstering tacks, hasps, and finials. Most of the furniture hardware is of brass (probably used after 1650). Since much of it is skillfully decorated, it is believed that it once was attached to furniture of high quality. Furniture used during the first two decades of the settlement, however, must have been simple with little or no ornamentation.
LIGHTING DEVICES
The candle, made of either tallow or bayberry wax, was the standard lighting device at Jamestown. Pine torches were often used out of doors, and rushlights and candlewood were undoubtedly used in the humbler dwellings during the very early years of the settlement. Candlesticks unearthed at Jamestown include a large brass pricket holder, one made of English sgraffito-ware, several incomplete earthenware holders, and parts of delftware candlesticks. Many fragments of brass and iron candlesticks, as well as a few candle snuffers, have also been recovered.
[Illustration: BOTH BRASS AND POTTERY CANDLESTICKS HAVE BEEN FOUND. THE CANDLE WAS THE STANDARD LIGHTING DEVICE DURING THE 17TH CENTURY.]
FIREPLACE ACCESSORIES
The fireplace, around which the family gathered, was one of the most important features in the Jamestown home. Its fire offered warmth in winter, afforded light at night, and cooked the family meals during the day. An oven, usually found at the back or at one side of the fireplace, baked the family bread and other foods. About the fireplace, many home chores were carried out, including spinning and sewing; and not far from the glow of the burning logs the children learned their daily lessons and received their early religious training. Social activities were enjoyed about the hearth, especially during the long winter evenings; and when a member of the family was ill, the fireplace and its accessories were in constant use. The fireplace was the first place visited by the housewife in the early morning, and was usually the last place where she performed her household duties late at night.
A fine assortment of fireplace tools and accessories have been found at Jamestown, including iron tongs, shovels, andirons, parts of brass warming-pans, and a large fragment from a cast-iron fireback. One early 17th-century andiron recovered is attractively decorated with a cherub's head in relief.
[Illustration: A FEW FIREPLACE TOOLS UNEARTHED AT JAMESTOWN.]
[Illustration: AN EARLY 17TH-CENTURY ANDIRON IN THE JAMESTOWN COLLECTION. NOTE THE CHERUB'S HEAD NEAR THE BASE.]
COOKING UTENSILS AND ACCESSORIES
A large and varied assortment of cooking utensils and kitchen accessories have been excavated, including kettles, pots, pans, skillets, frying pans, toasters, broilers, griddles, skimmers, skewers, spits, ladles, pothooks, trammels, cranes, trivets, cleavers, knives and forks, sieves, and colanders. While only a few are complete others are almost complete or at least easily recognizable.
During the early years of the colony, people in England who planned to emigrate to Jamestown were advised to bring the following "Household implements: One Iron Pot, One Kettle, One large frying-pan, One gridiron, Two skillets, One Spit, Platters, dishes, spoones of wood." With the exception of the wooden items, all of the utensils listed have been excavated.
[Illustration: A WROUGHT-IRON TRAMMEL USED FOR HANGING A POT FROM A FIREPLACE CRANE. THE ADJUSTABLE HOOK MADE IT POSSIBLE TO RAISE OR LOWER THE POT.]
[Illustration: AN IRON POT AND POT