Glassware and Pottery at Antick

The manufacture of glass was one of the earliest American trades. Techniques of the 17th century are still practiced in Williamsburg, Virginia by master glassblowers John Pierce and David Byerly. Their beautiful, hand-blown pieces reflect their combined 40+ years of experience in working with glass, as well as their knowledge of old glassware.



Julia Smith has been making historical reproduction pottery since 1983. Acclaimed by working archaeologists, museum professionals, and living historians alike, her work is displayed, offered for sale, and used at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Plimoth Plantation; Jamestown; Colonial Deerfield; Saint Marie's City; and many other sites, as well as in the homes and personal kits of reenactors across the country.


Extensive research precedes the creation of every piece and all are based on specific originals; dimensions, cross-section, clay body, construction, and finishing treatments all follow those of the prototype. The single exception to this policy is in the area of glazes; all glazes used are lead-free, allowing the pieces to be used for food storage and service. Great care has been taken, however, to achieve as close a match as possible to the effect of the original glaze.

"The griffin, a modern hieroglyphic, signifying strength and swiftness, united in the two noble forms of the lion and eagle, is a grand object. So the antique centaur hath a savage greatness as well  as beauty.

    These may be said to be monsters, it's true, but then they convey such noble ideas, and have such elegance in their forms as greatly compensates for their being unnaturally join'd together.

     I shall mention but one more instance of this sort, and that the most extraordinary of all, which is an infant's head of about two years old, with a pair of duck's-wings placed under its chin, supposed always to be flying about, and singing psalms.

     A painters representation of heaven would be nothing without swarms of these little inconsistent objects, flying about, or perching on the clouds; and yet there is something so agreeable in their form, that the eye is reconciled and overlooks the absurdity, and we find them in the carving and painting of almost every church. St. Paul's is full of them."

This is from William Hogarth's book The Analysis of  Beauty.