A Rare 19th Century Ancient Earthenware Vase Found in a Coastal Maine Home

A recent discovery has caused me to get quite excited about its potential for an important example of nineteenth century New England pottery. The following vase is a wonderful example of ancient products made during the latter years of the nineteenth century. It was purchased at a Nan Gurley antique show in Portsmouth, New Hampshire over the weekend. The dealer told me he had just pulled it from a house in the Portland, Maine area. I looked it over carefully. I wasn't convinced who the maker was, but I knew it was something special. I initially thought it may have been made at a business in Portland because of where it was found. I had remembered seeing a period advertisement for ancient products made in Portland in the 1870s - but when I got home, I realized that company was the Portland Stonware Company and none of their ancient pottery was made of red earthenware.

The other companies I had in mind were Chelsea Keramic Art Works in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Charles A. Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts and John Farmer Clark Pottery in Concord, New Hampshire. Due to its characteristics, I knew it had to be one of these companies.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts owns a wonderful example (click here for MFA page) of the Grecian styles made in Chelsea at the Chelsea Keramic Art Works under the guidance of the Robertson family. I carefully examined the jar I recently acquired with that in the MFA and other known examples in the collection of Historic New England. It just didn't seem to fit. The biggest deterrent was an interior glaze on the Maine-found jar that is similar to glazes seen on utilitarian earthenware crocks. From all the examples I have seen made in Chelsea - all were painted black on the interior or left plain. None had a utilitarian glaze.

Thomas Nickerson applied a utilitarian glaze to some of his garden products at the Merrimac Pottery Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts (late 19th and early 20th centuries), but he did not produce anything like this form. Here is a link to a form made in Newburyport with the type of glazed interior I am referring to.

I then examined a few examples of John Farmer Clark's ancient forms in Historic New England's collection. The decoration applied to his forms were not as skilled. They were simpler. The forms also did not compare to this vase. The New Hampshire Historical Society owns about a dozen examples of John Farmer Clark's Grecian wares and none were glazed on the interior. Most were not painted and of those that were, the black paint decoration was simple when compared to that on this jar. It was basic designs - nothing like what is seen here.

If you examine the hand-painted decoration on the vase found in Maine to that on the Chelsea Keramic jar in the Museum of Fine Arts - you will see similar painted figures. It is really difficult to understand the painting of any of these companies (Beverly, Chelsea and Concord) because so little of this type of material has survived. In fact, I know of only a small amount of any of these ancient forms which have survived today - and nearly all are in museums in the northeast. To my knowledge, the Smithsonian does not have any in its collection in Washington, D.C.

I feel the rarest of all these companies were the examples made in Beverly. I compared this jar to the example signed by Charles A. Lawrence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (click here for MET page) - and what I found is a very similar handle with an identical painted black stripe to that of the jar that appeared at the Portsmouth Show. What I have also found is a similar interior glaze was used on crocks in Beverly from a collection of shards I have collected next to where Lawrence's business operated on the Bass River. The color of the black paint is also similar to the example in the MET. The black paint used in Chelsea seems to have remained bolder over the years - and this has stood true from examples I have seen in the MFA, Historic New England and in a private collection. The base on this vase and that in the MET are also similar.

Lawrence employed the artist, Thomas Pitman of Marblehead, Massachusetts to decorate his Grecian products. The painted decoration on this jar is likely an example of Pitman's work.

Charles A. Lawrence Attributed Grecian Vase - Beverly, Ma

Ca. 1870-1880

Wonderful Hand-Painted Decoration

 Handle Very Similar to the Painted Handle in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC

That Handle was Made at Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Ma

Glazed Interior Similar to Many Glazes Applied on Utilitarian Earthenware Crocks

This is only the third example of painted Grecian products made in Beverly that I have ever seen or really know of. The others are in a private collection and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. All of the Grecian forms made in Newburyport, Beverly, Concord, Chelsea and Portland were actually modeled after original ancient forms made throughout Europe and Egypt. What I like about this particular vase is it has a personality from the woman carrying an ancient piece of pottery on her head.

You can read more about Lawrence Pottery in a report I wrote for the January 2013 edition of the New England Antiques Journal. Here is a link to that report. Lura Woodside Watkisn also wrote about these forms in her book, Early New England Potters and Their Wares, but she does not appear to have ever owned an example. All of her collection is now in the Smithsonian. I believe she only wrote about the advertisements she researched - and ancient forms was a product Lawrence Pottery placed in its ads.

Much More to Come...