The Pennsylvania Dutch were virtually the only people in America in Colonial days who had a strong, imaginative feeling for color and design; for creative art in their households, and even on such earthy objects as their barns, fences, wagons and weather-vanes. Our knowledge of Pennsylvania-Dutch pottery is based on museums, publications, and artifacts.
Southeastern Pennsylvania has much red shale and red clay giving the Dutch potters their opportunity, very soon after they had settled on their farms and cleared the land. It was a practical because they needed crocks, pots, baking dishes, and such, for their food manufacturing activities, also tile for roofs. Very soon the Pennsylvania-Dutch potters were making platters, crocks, jugs,
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