A pitcher for water or wine, a goblet or jug for cider, and a flask for transporting refreshments tell us about the consumption of beverages.

Pitcher and cider jug, 17th century Slip and glazed earthenware Found at the site of the second Quebec settlement Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, Archaeological Collection Photo: Steven Darby, Canadian Museum of Civilization

Glasses were rarely used in the early seventeenth century. The bourgeoisie preferred to use pewter ware, whereas the commoners used pottery. Archaeologists found two stoneware flasks and fragments of earthenware pitchers and jugs at the site of the second settlement. Pewter jugs, of various sizes (pint, half-pint, quarter-pint), were recycled and have not survived.

Flask, 17th century Stoneware Normandy, France Found at the site of the second Quebec settlement Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, Archaeological Collection Photo: Steven Darby, Canadian Museum of Civilization

Certain manufacturing characteristics and details of the shape of the objects found provide clues as to the place of manufacture. This makes it possible to trace the supply sources of Quebec’s first inhabitants. Products from Normandy and Maine predominate. Pottery, glassware, tobacco pipes, and probably glass beads and combs, arrived from Upper Normandy, all shipped through Honfleur and Dieppe, from where most of the supply ships departed each year. From Lower Normandy and Maine came more pottery and pins, via Rouen or more frequently exported from Saint-Malo. From the early days of the settlement, Quebec also received products from Saintonge, at least as far as pottery is concerned. These were usually loaded in La Rochelle.