Laura and Steve were soon engaged in earnest conversation about pottery production past and present. As he made the finishing cuts on a Christmas Ornament he had been working on, he explained that he was attempting to preserve a small specific element of the pottery industry. He was a Stoneware Potter. Stoneware being a style of clay, process and design, first appearing around 300 BC, and becoming a popular product in England in the 1600's. It is characterized by thick structures containing feldspar. I slipped around to the side as he was working and talking, to sneak a picture of the artist at work. The detail was spectacular, lost in any photo attempt of mine. He made it look so easy, as he effortlessly flicked off this flake of clay and that granular of mortar to create an accent so subtle that my eye could not follow its logic, but instantly understood the result. The Museum complex containing some 40 structures in various states of re-construction offered a feel for the centuries gone by. Especially where the outer facade had remained as it was when the land was bought. We selected only a couple of the finished masterpieces to inspect. The first, the Joshua Jones House was built in the early 1790's on the site of an earlier dwelling constructed by Nicholas Follet, a mariner in the late 1690's. During the restoration of the Jones house, many materials from an older house were discovered and it was believed that these were taken from the earlier Follet House. When the present house was listed for sale in 1794, it included a large shop now improved by a boat builder. Joshua Jones purchased it in 1796 and although his father and uncle were both boat-builders, Joshua seemed never to have practiced this trade. Rather he was typical of many men in early Portsmouth who worked at a variety of jobs. Papers at various times listed himself as yeoman, farmer, weigher of grain, truckman and trader. The large house must have been well suited to Jones, his wife Sarah and their ten children. He lived in it for nearly half a century until his death in 1843, and the house remained in the immediate family until 1876 when it was sold by Joshua's daughter, Louisa and her husband Aaron B. Mudge, who operated a boot and shoe manufactory. For a local business we selected the William Pitt Tavern built in 1766. The restoration of Pitt Tavern is based on several sources. Physical evidence suggesting the building's original appearance was revealed when subsequent layers were peeled away. The earliest known photograph of the tavern as it appeared about 1890 provided additional clues. When these two sources could not supply all the necessary information, features from other area buildings were reproduced. Many important events leading to the Revolution were conceived and organized within taverns. Each tavern came to be identified with a specific political cause and patrons were sometimes less then cordial to those who had different views. Tavern owners and stagecoach drivers often established partnerships or contracts whereby both parties profited. Specific taverns were designated points for departures and arrivals, and tavern owners sold tickets, handled baggage and watered horses. In return they could count on a steady business, servicing the needs of overnight passengers. One of the buildings held a display of interest to me. The methods of 17th century carpentry. Hewing and framing were the initial steps in building a house. The logs used to construct an early American house frame were stripped, scored, squared, and smoothed into beams, posts and other necessary components. These members were laid out on the ground in their proper position and assembled into units called "bents" Each bent consisted of two posts, one front and one rear, linked together by a horizontal "girt". After these front and rear wall frames were assembled, a shallow cellar was dug and the foundation and sills were laid. The house frame was then ready to be raised, a massive job that required the help of many friends and neighbors. The bents were raised into position by gangs of men when the master-builder gave the signal. When the bents reached shoulder height, long pikes and ropes were used to raise them until they were upright. Here they were balanced until the front and rear horizontal girths were raised into position. The pre-fitted mortise and tenon joints were then pegged together and the frame stood. Then the remaining girths and rafters were put up and the house was ready for its floors, walls, roof and chimney. Woodworking provided the major decorative elements of an Early American house. The basic tool required to make most decorative woodwork was a good plane. Each plane was designed to perform a specific function removing rough saw marks from a floor board or putting a fine finish on a wall panel, cutting a tongue-and-grove joint or producing a particular molding. Many complex moldings required several planes to produce the finished shape.
If you would like to get more information you can give them a call at: 603-433-1100 or stop by their website at: http://www.strawberybanke.org.

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