Fluted pipe with vertical milling around the rim and a wheat sheaf between floral decorations on the side of the bowl, circa 1810‱840, made in Chester. Attesting to both their popularity and fragility, 1,470 fragments of clay tobacco pipes were found on the project site. Though pipes are utilitarian objects, their design, decoration and maker’s marks can be seen as icons for the brief period of time in which each was manufactured and used. New York Transit Museum.

It is not often that artifacts dating back to the 1600s from early Dutch and British settlements are uncovered in New York. “Where New York Began: Archeology at the South Ferry Terminal,” presents more than 100 artifacts of the 65,000 recovered at the South Ferry Terminal archeological dig in Lower Manhattan.

The exhibition, on view through July 5 at the New York Transit Museum’s Gallery Annex in Grand Central Terminal, offers a look into the creative and utilitarian use of clay as a base material and its conversion into items of service and beauty. Visitors will see shards of ceramic roof tiles, cooking pots, dishes and pipes that still retain their luster and beauty after being discarded and buried for so many centuries. Admission is free.

Imported ceramic items from the Netherlands and Britain served as decorative items for homes along with vessels to prepare and serve meals in, providing the amenities of their old life in the New World. Clay also served as the base material for glazed roof tiles, exterior bricks, interior wall tiles, earthenware floor tiles, salt glazed stoneware, cooking pots, plates and other household containers. An amazing collection of fragile and beautifully ornate Dutch and British manufactured pipes are also in the exhibition.

Chinese painted porcelain plate with “Canton†motif, circa 1785‱850. This plate was mended from 21 separate sherds discovered in a single deposit. Though porcelain vessels exported from China were popular for much of the Eighteenth Century, they became more common in New York after the American Revolution, when direct trade between the United States and China began. New York Transit Museum.

“This is an important exhibit for those with an interest in how clay as a raw material was transformed into beautiful and functioning objects dating back to the 1600s,” said Roxanne Robertson, director of special projects for the New York Transit Museum. “It is also a visual treat to see the intricate Old World craftsmanship and maker’s marks that still hold their beauty to this day. This exhibit is, in part, a tribute to the staying power of the clay as a viable medium and to the craft of creating household, industrial and artistic ceramic objects.”

Though many of the artifacts were small in size, they are large in what they reveal about the city’s past. Many pieces were excavated from secondary deposits †redeposited material dumped for landfill †and cannot be tied to specific people or households. They do tell something about daily life in the city from colonial times to the Twentieth Century. These fragments illustrate color and textures of the city over the centuries as the city changed and grew. Through these thousands of sherds, the history of New York’s architecture, food, business and transportation come alive.

For information, www.mta.info/mta/museum or 718-694-4915.