Early to Mid 18th Century Redware of Philadelphia, Pa

Today's post will some-what serve as an abbreviated report of the longer article I plan to write on  "Dish Camp" held in New York later this week or next. The three-day event happened last weekend in Eastfield Village, New York.

Of the nine guest presenters - Debbie Miller, the National Parks Services' Philadelphia, Pennsylvania archaeologist, was included. She brought along a collection of fascinating ceramic archaeological artifacts from the Independence Park area of Philadelphia.

Upon walking into the church where the conference was held - I almost immediately saw this absolutely stunning and amazing redware coffee pot. It reminded me of a similar glazed jug that Massachusetts dealer and collector, Samuel Herrup kept within his private collection of redware for many years. Previous to Samuel Herrup's collection - it was a part of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Flack's collection that sold at Christies Auctions at an on-site sale under a tent in Pennsylvania in 1998. The jug sold to an undisclosed collector for an unspecified amount at this year's Connecticut Spring Antiques Show held at the Hartford Armory in March.

Take a careful look at both examples - one of which sits atop three legs and the other on a beautifully formed foot.

Philadelphia, Pa Redware Coffee Pot

Circa 1740-1760
Photo Courtesy: National Parks Services Philadelphia, Pa Archaeology Department

Philadelphia, Pa Redware Coffee Pot

Circa 1740-1760
Photo Courtesy: National Parks Services Philadelphia, Pa Archaeology Department 

Pennsylvania Redware Jug

Height: 6 Inches

Photo Courtesy: Samuel Herrup Antiques - Sheffield, Ma

 Pennsylvania Redware Jug

Height: 6 Inches

Photo Courtesy: Samuel Herrup Antiques - Sheffield, Ma

Debbie Miller said the coffee pot was found in an archaeology context of 1740 to 1760 at Franklin Park in Philadelphia. She personally felt the glaze was experimental imitating a similar glaze technique used by the English potter, Thomas Whieldon on flatware and related forms of the same period.

All Four Plates - Thomas Whieldon-style-ware, England

Mid 18th Century

Photos Courtesy: Skinner, Inc. - Boston

Franklin Park is near Benjamin Franklin's original home. The area may have served as a location for a potter's business of the period. It is not entirely known at the moment. Both the jug and coffee pot demonstrate a sponged and streaking brownish glaze over a cream body with a faint trace of gray. The color gray is especially unusual for any early American redware glazes. The name John Rogers as a potter was very loosely tossed out to the crowd for discussion. I am not using the early potter's name in anyway (yet) as an attribution in this report or on this website.

The ensuing redware form and glaze has emerged in eighteenth-century archaeological contexts in Charlestown, Massachusetts; Philadelphia and related areas. I believe this particular manufacturer to be a late eighteenth or early nineteenth-century English potter. The sponge decoration was most-popular in England.

 Late 18th or Early 19th Century Redware Bowl 

Origin Appears Debatable

I would like to know if any other examples with a similar glaze from this unidentified early Philadelphia potter exist. Isn't it possible? I have personally handled the jug and it was extremely accomplished in all aspects. It does seem experimental, but I feel the experiment went far beyond only a few pieces.

The coffee pot was briefly published in the 1980 book, "Handcraft to Industry: Philadelphia Ceramics in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century." Very little information was given about a possible attribution or remaining surviving examples. I feel the only people who realize a second example exists with a similar glaze - are those who are reading today's report and those who were in attendance at this year's event.

This website is kept private from all online search engines so  the information it provides is not available to just any online visitor.

There must be more examples out there with owners, that (a) don't know or even realize what they have, (b) have wrongly attributed the glaze to another country, or (c) are lost in-time and space at the moment. The sole reason very few examples exist from the Charlestown, Massachusetts potters is because the American Revolution destroyed the entire industry and area - this was not as much the case in Philadelphia.

Look in you cupboards, basements, attics...etc - and see what you have hidden. Unknown examples would probably most-likely turn up in the Philadelphia area. There will hopefully be more to report on with this early Philadelphia potter in-time. The idea of potential living examples from any eighteenth-century American potters is exciting. There is so-little evidence to have survived above ground and when examples are found or properly identified - it proves extremely encouraging. In this instance, there appears to be one example found below and another discovered above ground. I prefer much-more of the latter!

Much more to come...