Abraham Hews Family Pottery of Weston and Cambridge

The Boston Archaeology Department has a small museum display from the excavation of Brook Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts currently on exhibit. Brook Farm is a National Historic Landmark and was the site of an experimental intellectual society of Transcendentalists in the 1840s. The experiment did not last very long. The landmark itself consists of more than 175 acres.

The display basically represents everyday life for this society around mid 19th century. For visitors there is pottery, metal, iron, glass and such materials on view- and one piece, a reassembled terracotta pot from the Utopian period (1840-1845) caught my eye.

As you probably guessed, this is your traditional flowerpot. There are many examples of English terracotta from this same period in this country - like ceramics, terracotta was also an American import. This particular pot I do not believe is English - and instead, American made.

Not that far down the road from this site in West Roxbury, in-fact only a mattter of miles, there was a manufacturer of terracotta ware from the same period located in Weston known as Hews Pottery. There has also been a large amount of terracotta flower pots recovered at the Gore Place site in Waltham, Massachusetts. It is not known at this time if flower pots were manufactured at Gore Place. If you would like to read more about Gore Place here is a link to an in-depth study a student put together for their MBA thesis. Here is another link of a report that was prepared by the University of Massachusetts at Boston on Gore Place's archaeology. I believe this particular pot may have been manufactured in Weston.

Arguably American or English Made Flower Pots

Most likely made in Weston or Waltham, Ma

Abraham Hews was a farmer, and like him, generations of Hews' after him were, too. This was the case with many early redware potters in order to supplement their income, they were both active farmers and potters. Around 1765, Abraham became a potter in Weston producing utilitarian eartheneware - and operating his own kiln and shop. Much of the early Hews' production was redware. I can't say it was entirely redware because no one really knows for sure. There could have been a very limited line of stoneware produced even if it was only experimental. We have recently discoverd that with William Pecker. He was for many years believed to be solely a redware potter and that has been proven to be false in the past ten years. It only took 200 hundreds years to realize this.

Any type of eighteenth or nineteen century Hews redware is extremely rare. The Weston Historical Society does not have any redware, being 18th or even 19th century in its collection. Lura Woodside Watkins has a handful of pieces photographed in her book, "Early New England Potters and their Wares," which are all now in the possession of the Smithsonian, like much of her collection is. There are very few utilitarian redware pieces known to exist through both private collections and institutions made at Hews Pottery in Weston.

 

Miniature Hews Pottery Redware Jug - Early 19th Century

Similar in form to Watkins' Jug Pictured in Her Book

Author's Collection

Hews Pottery continued into the 19th century working out of Weston and still under the direction of the Hews family. There was a change in location during the early 1800s, but the business never actually left Weston for many years of operation. The company eventually changed its focus to gear itself more towards garden ware and terracotta.

Hews Pottery Terracotta Flower Pots

Both Photos Courtesy: Weston Historical Society

Hews Pottery operated out of Weston for more than one hundred years as a family owned and operated business until it opted to move the operation to North Cambridge in 1871. I am assuming this move was based on a business strategy. It was at this point that Hews Pottery became a fully-operating company and the name A.H. Hews was adopted. The company worked alongside the New England Pottery Company which was in Cambridge and produced its own line of ceramics in the late 1800s.

The company began with 15 employees and it eventually had full-time work for upwards of 100 workers - so you can imagine the quantity of ceramic in production the company was putting out. The pottery was also quality - it wasn't only about quantiy. There was a public demand for it and therefore the production was essential. It was around this time that the company A.H. Hews began producing art pottery. You may recall in yesterday's blog I mentioned the demand and importance that art pottery brought to the American marketplace. The utilitarian wares eventually phased out and this is where the demand for art pottery picked up.

During the late 19th to early 20th centuries, A.H. Hews was working alongside such pottery companies as William Grueby Pottery, John G. Low Art Tile, Chelsea Faience Company, Chelsea Keramics, Moses Paige Pottery, Dedham Pottery, Charles Lawrence Pottery and the Merrimac Pottery Company to name a few. All of which were located to the North, South and West of Boston.

A.H. Hews Art Pottery

Photo Courtesy: Weston Historical Society

A.H. Hews Art Pottery

Author's Collection

A.H. Hews Novelty Art Pottery

Many of the North Cambridge pieces are signed "Hews." Early utilitarian pottery was very rarely signed. With most utilitarian potters there was absolutely no need for signed pieces and this concept changed as the years went along. Much of the utilitarian ware was produced on a lesser scale meaning the potter was "only" trying to make a living. They made their ware and it was then brought to town to be sold. It was as simple as that. With the art pottery movement it was viewed as a company - thus the company stamp became a necessity.

What is surprisingly interesting about the history of Hews pottery is that this little operation that began in Weston in 1765 turned into a relatively large scale company in North Cambridge during the second half of of the 19th century and well into the 20th century. When Watkins was writing her book and even when it was first published in 1950, A.H. Hews was still in operation. The Hews family really lasted the test of time. Beginning in the north and traveling south, the likes of William Pecker, the Bayley Family, all the South Danvers Pottters, Charlestown's redware & stoneware industries, John Henry Benner in Abington, Peter Clark in Braintree and all the unknown Southeastern Massachusetts potters were outdone by the Hews Family in regards to longevity.

Abraham Hews was the "only potter" of all the accomplished early Massachusetts potters that turned his kiln and small shop into a major company that lasted three centuries. The Charlestown stoneware potters such as Jonathan Fenton and Frederick Carpenter could not even come close to achieving such success. Abraham Hews is some-what of an overlooked potter, but his families' commercial success can trump what most Massachusetts potters achieved in artistic skill - or the very least it can be compared to it.

During the late 19th century there was a large demand for a Grecian revival period that many of the Massachusetts pottery companies of this time period were involved with. Low Art Tile & Chelsea Keramic in Chelsea, Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Merrimac Pottery in Newburyport and A.H. Hews Pottery all produced their own line of Greek revival vases. It was not only in America that this revival was happening- it was all over the world. Wedgewood was producing it's own line in England. It was in global demand, but as quickly as their was demand there was a dislike and it quickly vanished.

4th Century B.C Greek Vase

Attributed to the Painter of Athens

Photo Courtesy: Sotheby's - New York, NY

Merrimac Pottery Company Grecian Vase

Thomas Nickerson - Portland, Me and Newburyport, Ma

All of the companies I just mentioned above produced their Grecian lines as part of its everyday production except one. Charles Lawrence's company of Beverly made its vases on a special order basis. I recently saw an advertisement which offered these vases to ladies from Boston through a special order. I have never personally seen any of the Beverly Grecian vases in person. I know there are some scattered throughout American museums. I would imagine they are extremely rare with the idea that they were only produced on a made-to-order basis.

The Robertson Family was an extremely well established family of potters who operated from the late 1870s up well into the 20th century. The family is well-known for either owning or working within the communities just north of Boston in Lynn, Revere and Chelsea. Regardless of their success in those communities, they are most famous for creating and running Dedham Pottery in Dedham, Massachusetts. Hugh Robertson was the most well-known of the Robertsons and he was responsible for establishing Chelsea Keramics, Chelsea Faience and Dedham Pottery. By today's standards, all of the pottery produced in these mentioned companies is high quality and in demand in the collector's world.

Dedham Pottery Plate

Photo Courtesy: Skinner, Inc- Boston

A.H. Hews outlasted the long and accomplished careers of the Roberston family. Hews Pottery had been in operation for more than a hundred years before the Robertson's came along. Hews Pottery saw the Robertson family businesses enter and disappear from the Boston marketplace as if it was just another company that A.H. Hews surpassed in production success.

The Hews Family outlasted the early utilitarian potters of the 18th and 19th centuries, it outlasted the stoneware manufacturers and more recently all of the area's art pottery manufacturers. It began when Charlestown was more than likely producing its redware, it then saw the pottery industry shift gears from redware to a stoneware medium, then once again - to the art pottery movement and which was followed by the Arts and Crafts Era.

The Hews Family should be proud of its contribution to the American marketplace and Boston's ceramics industry. Abraham Hews' vision to simply and solely provide for his family in 1765 turned into a company that adapted to the markets needs while ultimately achieving high success from the eighteenth century well into the twentieth century.

I have always found the story surrounding Hews Pottery very interesting. If you want to learn more about Hews Pottery, the Weston Historical Society is currently running a year-long Tercentennial Exhibition. For more infomation go to their website.

More from the Boston Archaeology Department and what is known thus far about the redware industry to come later this week or next.