Based on an assessment of over 1,500 small ceramic fragments, at least 85 Delft tiles have been found by archaeologists at Jamestown. These tiles, which typically measure about 5×5″ square were glazed with a lead glaze containing tin oxides, referred to simply as a tin glaze. This provided an opaque white background on which the potters would stencil a design. The stencils were drawings pricked with many small holes, called pounces. Charcoal dust would be used with the stencil to create an outline on the white background of the tile as a guide for the craftsman to hand paint the central figures and corner motifs in cobalt blue glaze. This technique allowed for many different designs to be applied to the tiles efficiently, including copies of artwork by well-known artists, such as Jacob de Gheyn.
First produced in the Netherlands in the late 16th century, Delft tiles became common decorative and protective elements for the area surrounding fireplaces in both the Netherlands and colonial Virginia in the 17th-century. The tiles are easy to clean, making a sooty fireplace a bit less of a household eyesore.
Nearly all of the Delft tiles recovered from Jamestown include corner motifs described as ox-heads, because of their similarity to the curly horns of oxen. This design was popular throughout the 17th-century. However, one tile, comprised of only two mended sherds, includes a Wan-li inspired corner motif. This design mimics fret-like decorations seen on Chinese porcelain ceramics, which were relatively new to the Netherlands in the early 1600s. The fragmentary tile also includes a shaped Chinese Ming-style central medallion, a design that specifically dates to the first quarter of the 17th-century. This extremely fragmentary tile is the earliest dated Delft tile in the Jamestown collection.
The majority of the tiles recovered from Jamestown include decorative motifs that date the tiles to the second quarter of the 17th century. At least 20 of the tiles include images of soldiers wearing armor, and carrying or brandishing weapons including muskets, pikes, swords, or crossbows. Soldiers first appeared on delft tiles around 1600, but their figures are particularly associated with tiles that date to the second quarter of the 17th century.
Most of the figures on the tiles from Jamestown are men, and while some are soldiers, others appear to be craftsmen, tradesmen, or men simply standing or walking, wearing clothing of the day including doublets and wide brimmed hats with feathers. A few tiles depict men playing games, including one with a hoop toy, one wearing ice skates, and another holding a balancing pole and walking on a tightrope. The figures seem to reflect the population at Jamestown in the mid-17th century, although we haven’t found any evidence or historical documentation for tightrope walking on the Island or ice skating on the James River! One tile depicts a landscape, one tile depicts an animal, possibly a lion or a dog, and one depicts a very frightening sea monster. The recovered delft tile fragments in the Jamestown collection highlight the impact of 18th and 19th century activities on the site. During these later years, the land where the fort previously stood was plowed, transformed into a Civil War fortification, and later landscaped by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (Preservation Virginia). These impacts moved artifacts like these delft tiles away from where they were originally deposited in the 17th century. This means that the tiles, which were manufactured in the Netherlands and used at Jamestown in the mid-17th century, were excavated alongside artifacts which date to much later periods of time. Archaeologists at Jamestown often refer to stratigraphic contexts or features like this as “mixed”, meaning that they include both 17th century and later items. Unfortunately this is the case for many of the tiles, including the one dated to the earliest Fort-period.
