Prices that suit the times: Shopping for ceramics at the Five Points (New York city, historical archaeology)

Throughout the 19th century, the area east of the Collect Pond was home to the immigrant poor. Primary documents offer one view of the crowded and dilapidated living conditions, which characterized the district known as "Five Points." The ceramic assemblage excavated at the Foley Square Courthouse site in 1991 sheds a different light on the people and their way of life in New York's most notorious slum. Sets of Staffordshire tea and tableware, as well as Chinese porcelain, are present in the assemblage. Issues relating to the procurement and availability of seemingly fancy ceramics and their meaning to the mid-century Irish tenants who used them are explained. Meaning is considered in terms of Irish cultural traditions and middle-class Victorian values. The CC index value of the large ceramic assemblage is also compared to CC values for other assemblages from New York City and elsewhere and the implications of the differences are considered.