“A China Boxe”: Ming Porcelain, Indigenous Diplomacy, and Global Exchange in Early Virginia

Merry Abbitt Outlaw, Senior Curator, Jamestown Rediscovery

Bly Straube, Senior Curator, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Porcelain Box sherd from Jamestown, Dehua, China, ca. 1600-1620. H: 1 ½”.
The box is embossed with vertical reeding on the exterior, and a V-shaped indentation in the corner

Ming Chinese porcelain sherds representing over 135 discrete vessels have been recovered at James Fort (1607-1624) by Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists. Most are blue and white kraak porcelain made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China, during the reign of the Wanli Emperor. Also represented are many bowls made in Zhangzhou, Fujian province on China’s southeast coast. Unique within this assemblage, however, is a corner sherd from a small press-molded box, made in Dehua, also Fujian province—a center famous for producing Blanc de Chine, a fine, white porcelain manufactured during the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

These small Dehua boxes are often identified as cosmetic containers, but their form and finish also make them well-suited for holding incense, medicines, or other precious substances. The sides of the box are embossed with parallel vertical reeding that deliberately imitates woven bamboo strips, a visual reference to lacquered wares produced in southern China since at least the fourth century BCE. Far from being merely decorative, this motif situates the object within a long-standing tradition of elite material culture: Chinese lacquer boxes of this type were highly prestigious luxury goods, potent markers of wealth and status, and objects commonly mobilized within diplomatic exchange networks.

Box with cover, Dehua, China. Ca. 1600-1620.
3 3/4” x 3 3/4” x 2 1/2”.
The Jamestown box sherd is identical to this intact square box, suggesting they may have been made in the same mold.

Documentary evidence suggests that such an object played a role in diplomatic relationships among North American Indigenous nations before 1621. That year, English colonists traveling up the Potomac River reported seeing a “China Boxe at one of the Kings Houses.” When they asked the werowance how he obtained it, he replied that it had been sent by “a King that dwelt in the West, over the great Hills, some tenne dayes journey, whose Country is near a great Sea.” The gift-giver had said that it came from people “that came thither in ships, that weare cloths, crooked swords . . .dwelt in houses and were called Acanack-China.”

Carved red lacquer Chinese box with gilded basketry panels, early 17th century. H: 3-5/8” x W: 5 ¾” x D 5 ¾” (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015). Accession 2015.500.1.60a,b. The box lid is carved with plum blossoms and magpies, which is an auspicious bird in Chinese culture because its name is a homophone for “happiness.” Note the woven bamboo and the deeply cut corners, and the pedestal base.

The Englishmen describe the box they had seen as “made of braided Palmito, painted without, and lined in the inside with blue Taffata after the China or East India fashion,” a description that strongly suggests a lacquered bamboo container. Although this description does not match the porcelain box found at James Fort, the Virginia werowance’s “China Boxe” is nonetheless highly significant as it underscores the reach and vitality of Indigenous trade and diplomatic networks.  These networks extended far beyond English colonial influence, connecting Native leaders to global goods, distant cultures and long-standing systems of exchange.

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Following the Dragon: Ming Chinese Porcelain from Jamestown at Jamestown Settlement is a special cooperative exhibition by the Jamestown Rediscovery

Foundation (Preservation Virginia) and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. The exhibition, which runs through July 12, 2026, reunites thirty-one fragmentary Ming porcelain vessels recovered from James Fort with intact parallel examples from British, Dutch, and U.S. museums and private collections. Highlights include extraordinarily rare wares such as a bottle depicting the Chinese fenghuang, known today only from James Fort and a single matching pair in the collection of King Charles III.

References

Susan Myra Kingsbury (1906-1935) The Records of the Virginia Company of London III (Washington: Government Printing Office), 547.

Merry Abbitt Outlaw (2025) Following the Dragon: Late Ming Porcelain from James Fort, Jamestown, Virginia (Hollis, NH: Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation).

Samuel Purchas (1625) Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes XIX (Glasgow: James MacLehose & Sons, 1907), 151-152.

Mariana Zechini, Archaeology Lab Analyst, George Washington’s Mount Vernon

A total of 94 cat bones from the 2024 and 2018 excavations were found. Photo by George Brown.

During recent excavations of Mount Vernon’s cellar, archaeologists discovered 94 bones belonging to a cat. Some of the cat’s bones exhibited an interesting pathology, telling us more about one of this cat’s nine lives!

Domestic cats were common on 18th century sites as ratters and mousers, so the skeleton itself is an interesting, but not surprising, find. Domestic cat bones have been found elsewhere at Mount Vernon, including two mandibles excavated from the kitchen and one from the House for Families quarter¹. However, both mandibles of the cat recovered from the Mansion cellar show signs of alveolar resorption, a process of bone reformation along teeth sockets following tooth loss or disease².

The mandibles show signs of alveolar resorption, indicating the cat may have been fed by someone in order to survive. The right mandible (top) was found in 2024 and the left mandible (bottom) was found in 2018 and mend to each other. Photo by George Brown.

Missing teeth meant the cat may have struggled to hunt on its own and consume its prey, but the presence of alveolar bone remodeling suggests that someone cared for this cat, keeping it fed for several months to years as its tooth sockets filled with new bone. The fusion of bones present in the assemblage demonstrates the cat was an adult, although an exact age remains unclear.  While alveolar resorption can occur at any time in a cat’s life, the chance of tooth loss and disease increases with age, suggesting the cat may have been a mature animal. Unfortunately, the cat’s cranium – the rest of the skull above the lower jaw – is missing, so it is impossible to determine if alveolar resorption is present on the maxillae as well.

Caption: A close up of the right mandible showing alveolar resorption and bone remodeling. Photo by George Brown.

No documentary evidence regarding cats as pets during George Washington’s tenure at Mount Vernon has been found, and the cat cannot be definitively connected to any person at the estate. George and Martha were more invested in their pet birds and dogs, and in fact, Martha’s granddaughter Nelly Custis, who came to live at Mount Vernon in 1781 expressed her disdain for cats in a 1797 letter to her best friend³. The lack of documentary evidence for cats as pets in the Washington family may indicate that the cat was cared for by enslaved workers who labored in the cellar where the cat was eventually found. Records indicate that the enslaved Lee family – Lucy, Frank, and their children – lived in the basement, but not until the 1790s after the cat’s skeleton was deposited.

It is unclear how the cat’s remains ended up in the cellar. Most of the bones were burned and were found scattered among three adjacent units near the bottom of a stairwell. Current archaeological and architectural research suggests that the staircase may have been constructed as early as the 1740s when Lawrence Washington, George’s older half-brother, owned Mount Vernon, or possibly in the 1750s when Washington arrived and began making large-scale changes across the plantation. Thus, the cat likely died and was deposited in the cellar sometime between 1740-1760⁴.

ArchGIS Ortho map of the basement. Most of the burned cat bones were found in unit B04-4 and its features. Unburned cat bones were found in units 22 and 23. Maps by Nick Beard.

Most of the burned cat bones were localized in one unit near the bottom of the staircase, although eight unburned cat bones were found intwo adjacent units. As the mansion grew, this room underwent several periods of remodeling, including the addition of a paved floor installed around the 1770s. While no indication of a burial of the remains has been identified, the archaeological evidence of an internment could have been destroyed during the various campaigns of construction that occurred in the space. Alternately, the bones may have been part of fill that was brought in to the cellar and scattered during leveling. No documentary evidence of a fire in this part of the room exists, however a small one may have occurred that was never recorded, burning a few of the bones. While the cat’s exact fate remains unknown, it is clear its skeleton was heavily disturbed by frequent construction.

The opening of B04-4E, the layer containing most of the cat skeleton. The purple arrow indicates the area where most of the cat bones were found and the white arrow indicates the landing of the stairwell. Photo by Kyle Vanhoy.

Excavation of the cellar and analysis of the faunal material found there is ongoing. Although the full story of the cat may never be known, this unique find provides an exciting opportunity to rethink the relationships between humans and animals at Mount Vernon.

Special thanks to Magen Hodapp for zooarchaeological consultation, George Brown for photographing the bones, and the Mount Vernon Archaeology team for answering my constant questions!

1 Bowen, Joanne. 2015. Faunal Analysis for Mount Vernon. Report to Eleanor Breen, Historic Mount Vernon, Historic Preservation Department, Mount Vernon, VA.

2 White, Tim D., Michael T. Black, Pieter A. Folkens. 2012. Human Osteology, 3rd Edition. Elsevier, Inc. Burlington, Massachusetts.

3 Thompson, Mary. 2020. “On one side I am called upon to remember the Parrot, on the other to remember the dog”: George Washington and Animals, Domestic and Exotic. Unpublished paper, Mount Vernon Ladies Association, Mount Vernon, VA.

4 Reinhart, Tom, Carhart, Lily, Boroughs, Jason. 2025. Personal Communication.

Sarah Janesko, Senior Archaeologist, New South Associates, Inc.

In a recent excavation in Stafford County, VA, archaeologists with New South Associates (NSA) uncovered a Clovis projectile point. 

People of the Clovis culture are known to have lived in this region since about 13,000 years ago, or about 11,000 BCE¹. The Clovis culture is well known by archaeologists for their style of fluted projectile points which they hafted to spears for hunting megafauna like the mastodon, wooly mammoth, bison, horses, and others². Clovis people lived in a temperate climate that was likely 5-10 degrees colder than today’s climate. They moved across grasslands, coniferous forests, and upland terrain in small groups to hunt, fish, and gather their food using tools made from a range of lithic materials including jasper, chert, orthoquartzite, and quartz. 

This projectile point, found in Stratum II of an excavation unit on an upper terrace above the Potomac Creek, is made from jasper breccia – a cryptocrystalline stone with veins of quartz cemented into its matrix. Jasper and chert were commonly used to make stone tools due to their small grain structure, which fractures in more predictable ways than quartz or quartzite. The jasper used to manufacture this point while not definitively sourced, has characteristics of Brook Run jasper, a stone type found at a quarry just over 9 miles from where this Clovis point was excavated. This might indicate that the stone for this tool was quarried locally and used by people who hunted and camped in this region.

To gain a better understanding of the types of animals that were being hunted and processed at this site along the Potomac Creek, NSA tested several artifacts, including this Clovis point, to assess the presence of animal protein residue. Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. (AINW) analyzed the samples using a method called crossover immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), a technique which is based on the immune (antigen-antibody) reaction. In this process, extracts of protein residues from artifacts in an ammonia solution are tested against antisera from known animals. Positive reactions to antisera indicate that the stone tool or tool fragment came into direct contact with a species in that Family or Order.

The results of this analysis showed that this Clovis projectile point contained protein residue from Bovidae, the biological family which includes bison and domestic cattle. These Bovidae proteins are likely from ancient bison, and have been identified on other Clovis points along the East Coast in North and South Carolina^2,3. This is truly a special artifact which adds to our understanding of some of the first people who lived on the land we now call Virginia.

1. Boyd, Cliff. 2020. A Review of Paleoindian Research in Virginia and a View towards the Future. In The Archaeology of Virginia’s First Peoples, edited by Elizabeth A. Moore and Bernard K. Means. Archeological Society of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

2. Moore, Christopher R., Larry Kimball, Albert C. Goodyear, Mark J. Brooks, I. Randolph Daniel Jr., Allen West, Sean G. Taylor, Kiersten J. Weber, John L. Fagan, and Cam M. Walker. 2023. Paleoamerican Exploitation of Extinct Megafauna Revealed Through Immunological Blood Residue and Microwear Analysis, North and South Carolina, USA. Scientific Reports 13.

3. Moore, Christopher R., Mark J. Brooks, Larry R. Kimball, Margaret E. Newman, and Brian P. Kooyman. 2016. Early Hunter-Gatherer Tool Use and Animal Exploitation: Protein and Microwear Evidence from the Central Savannah River Valley. American Antiquity 81(1):132–147.

(not cited) Carr, Kurt W. 2018. Peopling of the Middle Atlantic: A Review of Paleoindian Research. In Middle Atlantic Prehistory: Foundations and Practice, pp. 219–260. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland.

Sean Devlin, Senior Curator of Archaeology, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

sdevlin@cwf.org

Excavations in the 2022 season at Williamsburg’s colonial magazine brought to light a sprig-molded medallion bearing the letters “GR.” While this decoration is commonly associated with Westerwald or white salt-glazed stoneware decoration, the magazine medallion was pearlware.

While these specific medallions on pearlware are rare, they were part of a widespread decorative imitation perpetuated by British potteries. The practice of applying molded pads bearing the “GR” royal cipher or initials to mugs, jugs, and chamberpots for sale in the British markets started in the stoneware potteries of Westerwald, Germany ¹. British stoneware potters soon took up this decorative convention on their own wares. Sprig-molded medallions are perhaps most synonymous with white salt-glazed stoneware in the scratch blue genre. In this iteration, the applied pads were often surrounded by free-hand foliate or geometric incised decoration into which cobalt blue colorant was applied and wiped away to varying degrees of precision². Additionally, these vessels were often adorned with bands of cordoning at the top and bottom of the vessel body, itself often colored with cobalt.

With the appearance of new kinds of ceramic bodies, such as pearlware, in the 1770s, this tradition appears to have continued in a limited fashion. Conventionally, these decorations are ascribed to the period immediately following the American Revolution and for a few decades thereafter. Indeed, a small but robust body of archaeologically recovered scratch blue pearlware vessels bearing medallions have been found on sites from Massachusetts³, to Maryland⁴, to Charleston⁵. Colonial Williamsburg is fortunate to also have an intact example amongst its Fine and Decorative Arts ceramics collections.

The recently excavated Williamsburg example expands not only the known distribution of this ceramic, but also provides an opportunity to reflect on the diversity of molds that appear to have been used in the production of these applied pads. Of the four other archaeological examples and one fine arts collections piece identified so far as comparable examples, each vessel decoration was produced with a unique medallion mold. This typological avenue begs for further exploration and may offer insights into exactly how widespread the adaptation of this decorative tradition was to new ceramic ware types in British potteries. Unfortunately, the Williamsburg example was recovered from a disturbed context. Nevertheless, it speaks to the evolution of marketing and decoration of British ceramics in the late 18^th century and makes an important contribution to expanding a very small set of archaeological data on these medallions in American contexts.

¹ Skerry, Janine, Suzanne Hood. 2009. Salt-Glazed Stoneware in Early America. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Williamsburg, in association with University Press of New England, Hanover.

² Noël Hume, Ivor. 1970. A Guide to the Artifacts of Colonial America. Alfred Knopf. New York, NY.

³ Schwartz, George. 2011. “Digging Up Salem’s Golden Age: Ceramic Use Among the Merchant Class.” In Robert Hunter (ed.) Ceramics in America 2011. Chipstone Foundation. Milwaukee, WI.

⁴Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory 2015 [2003] Colonial Ceramics: White Salt-Glazed Stoneware. Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/ColonialCeramics/Colonial-LargeImages/White%20Salt%20Glazed/18BC38-ScratchBlueChamberpot-GR.html [accessed 3/28/2025]

⁵ Zierden, Martha 2022. Personal communication regarding Charleston scratch pearlware.

Chrissy Ames, D.C. Historic Preservation Office

Archaeological investigations in the 1980’s by Engineering Science, Inc. of the Halcyon House at 3400 Prospect St, NW, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. uncovered multiple complete glass pharmaceutical bottles embossed with “J.L. Kidwell”. (Baumgartner-Wagner and Dinnel 1989) (Figure 1). Halcyon House was built in 1787 by Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy (Jones and Bailey 1959). Not only was the recovery of these bottles a great find because of their completeness, but their markings refer to John Lawrence Kidwell, a druggist and the very same “J.L. Kidwell” who lived at Halcyon from 1859 to 1900. These artifacts have served as an entry point for learning more about Kidwell’s business affairs in Civil War-Era Washington.

As early as 1860, Kidwell maintained a store on E St, NW (Boyd 1860). Embossing a proprietor’s name or address in raised lettering on a bottle was common during the 19th century. The marking would ensure a bottle was returned to the right business and also served as advertising.

Kidwell was well-established by this time, serving as the seventh President of the newly formed American Pharmaceutical Association, the building of which was constructed on land that Kidwell himself had purchased. Kidwell’s full-page advert in the City Directory isn’t shy about all his business could offer: a “First Class Drug Store”, “dealing in English, French and American Drugs, Chemicals and Perfumery”, and “Brandies, Wines and Liquors” (Boyd 1867:352) (Figure 2). The wide variety of bottles recovered during the archaeological investigation of Halcyon including embossed and plain pharmaceutical bottles, and a picnic flask-style liquor bottle suggests that his advertisements rang true, as the different bottles would have been filled with different items for sale (Figure 3).

During the Civil War, Kidwell earned the moniker “Quinine King” as he sold large quantities of the malaria-fighting product to the Union Army (American Institute of Pharmacy, n.d.). A scandal emerged in October 1862, when a few individuals from Washington were arrested by Union forces in Virginia, a Confederate state, on charges of smuggling quinine to the enemy. While the group had standard passes allowing them to travel “beyond the lines with family supplies” it was discovered that they were carrying 300 ounces of quinine, too large a quantity to be considered “family supplies” (Alexandria Gazette 1862:2 and Evening Star 1862: 2). Contemporary newspaper accounts described the quinine hidden within the skirt bustle of one of the arrested ladies, a known smuggling tactic (Lupu 2024).

Kidwell was named as one of the druggists who sold the “contraband medicines” to these individuals knowing they were destined for Confederate territory, and was soon also arrested and joined the others in Old Capitol prison, in Washington D.C. (Alexandria Gazette 1862: 2 and Evening Star 1862: 2). While Kidwell proclaimed his innocence and was quickly released, there was talk at the time that he was a southern sympathizer (Lupu 2024). It was eventually determined that neither Kidwell nor his store clerks “knowingly violate[d] the Government’s necessary order on the subject” (The Evening Star 1862: 2).

While we don’t know whether any of the “allegedly” smuggled bottles were embossed with Kidwell’s name, we do know that such illicit trade provided quinine to Confederate forces in Virginia. Over half of Civil War deaths were attributed to disease, and the manufacture and distribution of quinine (then, the only known cure for malaria) was purposefully controlled by the Union; those making prohibited sales stood to gain significant profit (Lupu 2024).

The Halcyon House artifact collection, including these embossed bottles, is now curated by the D.C. Historic Preservation Office (Ames 2016).

The DC Archaeology Team would like to make a shoutout to Dr. Jenn Lupu, who carried Kidwell’s history well beyond the initial investigative report- thanks Jenn!

Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, D.C.). 1862. Saturday Evening. 1 Nov: 2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1862-11-01/ed-1/seq-2/, accessed 13 Nov 2024.

Ames, Christine. 2016. Digging for Extraordinary Stories in the District’s Archaeological Collections. Paper presented at the 2016 D.C. History Conference, Washington, D.C.

American Institute of Pharmacy. N.D. Complete History American Institute of Pharmacy. Electronic document, https://aphanet.pharmacist.com/sites/default/files/files/complete_history_american_pharmacy_institute.pdf, accessed 27 October 2016.

Baumgartner-Wagner, Norma A., and Katherine J. Dinnel. 1989. Archeological Research at Halcyon House (51NW16). Prepared by Norma A. Baumgartner-Wagner, M.A., Consulting Archeologist, Fallston, Maryland, for Prospect Associates, Washington, D.C. Report on file at D.C. Historic Preservation Office, Washington, D.C.

Boyd, Wm. H. (compiler) 1860. Boyd’s Washington and Georgetown Directory Containing a Business Directory of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, Congressional and Department Directory, and An Appendix of Much Useful Information. Taylor and Maury, Booksellers and Publishers, Washington, D.C.

Boyd, Wm. H. (compiler) 1867. Boyd’s Directory of Washington & Georgetown; together with a Business Directory of Alexandria, VA, and a Compendium of Their Government, Institutions, and Trades Boyd’s Directory, Co., Washington, D.C.

Jones, Russell and Worth Bailey. 1959. Halcyon House (Stoddert), 34th & Prospect Streets, N.W. Georgetown, D.C. HABS No. DC-69. Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service, Washington, D.C. Report on file at D.C. Historic Preservation Office, Washington, D.C.

Lupu, Jenn. 2024. Smuggled in Dresses and Dolls Heads: The Strategic Control of Quinine during the American Civil War. In progress. Copy on file at D.C. Historic Preservation Office.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). 1862. Local News, a mistake on the arrest of Mr. Kidwell. 5 Nov: 2.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). 1862. Seizure of Contraband and Contrabandists. 31 Oct: 2.