The use and manufacture of ceramics was well-established in lowland areas of Perth and Kinross long before the end of the medieval period (Hall 1996; 1998). In contrast, there is reason to believe that some upland communities in the region may have been largely aceramic up until the late 18th century (Atkinson 2016, 262). Instead, utensils were largely of wood, metal or bone. Further research into the presence, or absence, of pottery items in upland areas during the 17th and 18th centuries should be a priority.
Both imported and locally produced wares were present in 17th- and 18th-century lowland communities in Perth and Kinross. Locally produced post-medieval ceramics have been discovered at a number of sites in the burgh of Perth, including 45 Canal Street and St John’s Square (Blanchard 1983; Hall 2016). However, no post-medieval pottery production sites have been firmly identified or excavated in the region, although scientific analysis of ceramic sherds suggests they did exist. This phenomenon is not unique to Perth and Kinross; the first post-medieval pottery production site to be excavated in the west of Scotland was only found in the 2010s (Paton 2015).
In comparison to the extensive study of medieval ceramics from Perth and Kinross, post-medieval pottery has received less attention; this is a lacuna that is apparent in many parts of the British Isles (Cumberpatch 2003). Ironically, the limited archaeological interest in post-medieval pottery may reflect the frequency with which such items are discovered, particularly in urban areas. They are regarded as common finds of no great significance other than as an indicator of chronology. However, post-medieval ceramics have the potential to provide clues about cultural contact, social and economic change and many details of daily life. More systematic study of 17th and 18th-century pottery from Perth and Kinross would be especially desirable, and might help elucidate early post-medieval patterns of consumption.
The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a major expansion in access to ceramic items in Perth and Kinross. Indeed from the 1790s onwards, a wide range of pottery items are found even in relatively remote upland communities. For example, the Ben Lawers project excavated a considerable quantity of 19th-century bowls, plates, teapots and jars from communities which only a generation earlier showed limited evidence of using ceramics (Atkinson 2016, 142–3). These 19th-century ceramics were largely mass-produced items which had been imported to the region from the major pottery manufacturing areas of the British Isles. It seems likely that growing access to items from the big pottery centres, such as Staffordshire, severely undermined local ceramic production in Perth and Kinross.
However, some tile and brick production did continue in Perth and Kinross. Bricks for the Bell Mill (1786–7) at Stanley, and the houses in Store Street, are assumed to have been from local clays and clamp kilns. The region also had 19th- and 20th-century tile and brick production at locations such as the Strathallan Brick, Tile and Pottery Works at Wallfauld (MPK6181), the Pitfour Brick and Tile Works at St Madoes (MPK13384) and the Errol Brick and Tile Works at Inchcoonans (MPK10389). Further research into these sites might be of interest, both for what they can reveal about the 19th-century production of building materials and as locations which may have a longer history of making items from clay.