During the last half of the eighteenth century, craftsmen of Continental and British descent brought a wide variety of Old World ceramic traditions to the North Carolina backcountry. The achievements of these craftsmen often surpassed those of their Middle Atlantic and New England contemporaries, particularly in the application of polychrome slip decoration. North Carolina potters transformed the most basic material into objects of exceptional beauty and cultural significance. For the Moravians, slipware plates and dishes functioned as reminders of their European roots as well as potent symbols of religion and the cycle of life. For other potters and their patrons, decorated earthenware was a means of expressing and preserving their identity in the New World (Fig. 1).
