19th or Early 20th Century Black & Green Painted Red Earthenware FlowerPot

**I have learned the pot in this report is likely a Native American product from the nineteenth or twentieth-century. It is still an interesting comparison I make below to the Massachusetts potter, William Walley.**

----------

I recently purchased this red earthenware flower pot from an antique dealer in Essex, Massachusetts. Essex is located just north of Boston. This particular dealer only sells what he finds from homes within a twenty-five mile distance of Essex. He essentially cleans out homes, but sometimes does house-calls, too - where a homeowner calls him to see if he has any interest in items they own. He only specializes in antiques - typically no later than the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Late 19th or Early 20th Century Red Earthenware Flower Pot

Possibly from a Massachusetts Potter

Purchased in Essex County and Found in a Home Nearby

Very Unusual Green and Black Paint Decoration
Decoration Does Not Appear Amateaur

This is what I can definitively say about the flower pot:

1) It was hand turned by a potter.

2) It is a red earthenware product.

3) It was hand-painted with green and black colors.
4) The paint decoration does not appear amateur.
5) Green and black were both colors used by potters during the Arts and Crafts Movement - especially in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

6) The rim has been rolled inward inside the jar.

7) The flower pot feels late 19th or early 20th century.

8) It was found in a home in Eastern Massachusetts by a long-time antiques dealers.
9) The base is flat not like some mass-produced molded flower pots.
10) Its form is similar to some hanging nineteenth century earthenware flower pots made by industrial Massachusetts potters.

11) And, the drainage hole is not centered on the bottom - which may indicate there were many pots lined up and all had holes placed at once.

Hand-Pushed Drainage Hole on the Bottom of the Flower Pot

Red Earthenware Seen on the Interior

I quickly turned to Lura Woodside Watkins book, Early New England Potters and Their Wares for any information about Massachusetts earthenware potters who painted flower pots. She says a business run by Abner S. Wight and Richard Linley made earthenware flowers after 1875 in West Sterling, Massachusetts. She says they painted molded flower pots, which a past-worker recalled his experience to her while she researched her book before 1950. I have no actual proof of how all these painted wares appeared, but I did see a group of molded shards from the West Sterling operation as part of Watkins collection at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The shards were completely different than how the flower pot of discussion was made. It seems flower pot production was an important product in West Sterling from the shards and actual examples seen in Watkins collection.

 Red Earthenware Molded Flower Pot Shard

Made in West Sterling, Ma

Ca. Late 19th Century

Lura Woodside Watkins Collection

Photo Courtesy: Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Natural History - Washington, D.C.

  Red Earthenware Molded Flower Pot Shard that was Painted Red
An Attached Saucer is Seen

Made in West Sterling, Ma

Ca. Late 19th Century

Lura Woodside Watkins Collection

Photo Courtesy: Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Natural History - Washington, D.C.

 Red Earthenware Molded Flower Pot Shard
Made in West Sterling, Ma
Ca. Late 19th Century

Lura Woodside Watkins Collection
Photo Courtesy: Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Natural History - Washington, D.C.

Painted flower pots were also popular in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, but many of those examples were manufactured as a traditional pot with an attached saucer at the base (see Buxton, Maine report for examples). Flower pots were really made all over the country from Virginia to Vermont, back to Massachusetts and in Western New York. It was a common product that has always been in demand even up through today.

The way the drainage hole was placed on this pot seemed different to me. It was not totally centered like a machine-made product would have appeared. Many of the nineteenth century Eastern Massachusetts potters who made flower pots even gave that special attention to a near-perfect hole placement. It's different in this case.

It seems like there may have been a large amount of these pots lined up and a worker went along punching holes. That may be why it is not perfectly centered on the base.

I own a bunch of nineteenth century flower pots with a similar approach, which Watkins attributed a comparable form in her collection to West Sterling, Massachusetts; however, it is very difficult to actually attribute such a simple form like these pots to any specific maker without a very strong provenience. Take a look at the simple flower pots I am referring to below.

 Late 19th or Early 20th Century Red Earthenware Flower Pots
Similar Form Attributed by Lura Woodside Watkins to West Sterling, Ma
Watkins Pots Also Show a Similar Drainage Hole

Similar Method of Applied Drainage Holes to Each Pot

The potter, William J. Walley eventually took over an earthenware business in West Sterling at the end of the nineteenth century. Walley was involved with the New England utilitarian stoneware business in the 1870s. He was employed at the F.B. Norton stoneware company in Worcester, Massachusetts - producing forms commonly associated with the stoneware industry of the late 1800s. Around 1890, he purchased the old Wachuset Pottery (owned by Marcus Snow and Henry Coolidge) about fifteen miles form Worcester. Wachuset Pottery was known for making red earthenware and other products. The company was the largest earthenware business in Central Massachusetts from its start in 1820. Clay was reportedly harvested from the local Stillwater River. Walley probably used the same clay source. Walley's company made flower pots and art ware with fancy glazes until his death in 1917. He was born in England before leaving for America. He probably trained their, too.  Walley's influences and inspiration was large from all the industries he was involved with. He also worked in parts of Canada and Ohio before arriving in Massachusetts. Ohio was known for its art pottery - and Walley was probably largely influenced from his experience in that state.

I own an example of Walley's finer glazed floral products as part of my collection. Its really interesting to see the paint colors applied on the flower pot next to the glaze colors used on one of Walley's red earthenware vases. They are very similar! Both show black and green colors. 

(Left) Green and Black Painted Red Earthenware Flower Pot

(Right) William J. Walley Red Earthenware Vase - West Sterling, Ma - Ca. 1895-1917

Greens were also used at Grueby Pottery in South Boston, Massachusetts - at Thomas Nickerson's Merrimac Pottery Company in Newburyport Massachusetts - and at Hampshire Pottery in Keene, New Hampshire - but, none of these Arts & Crafts businesses made hand-turned flower pots in this manner. Most drew inspiration as either art pottery, Old World Grecian wares or perfected floral products. Walley remained an art potter who produced simple utilitarian floral products.

I would have to see more flower pots with similar paint colors to feel strongly about a possible Walley attribution for this flower pot, but it is very interesting to see an actual example of Walley's work next to the pot. They both show comparable green and black decoration and the manner in which the drainage holes were placed on some known West Sterling flower pots is also similar. The idea behind both forms may also be related.

The vase on the right was glazed - while the pot on the left was hand-painted. Both also appear to be from the correct period. Its certainly an interesting idea! Its possible I will stumble upon more information about this flower pot in the future. 

Much More to Come...