Late 18th or Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Products: Southeastern Mass vs Essex County Mass

I have always been taught this red earthenware form was made in southeastern Massachusetts in the early nineteenth-century. It is something I have always believed, but a jar that recently emerged has made me question its truthful origin. The form is a lidded straight-sided jar that varied in size. There were small ones and larger ones. The size of the jar may have been determined by what the consumer need it for. The smaller forms may have been used for spices or herbs and the larger jars may have stored bigger products. The size may have also been determined by the amount of products it stored that were consistently kept in any given household. Material culture can be complicated and there are many more factors why a consumer would have purchased a certain sized jar. There is no real definitive answer - when it comes down to it, it's really all about the consumer's personal taste or personal need.

These jars are very thinly potted and they usually display a set of fine lines applied  around the neck or lip.

 Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Storage Jar - Probably a Massachusetts Potter

Ex-Curry Collection

9" Tall

Photo Courtesy: Willis Henry Auctions - Marshfield, Ma

Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Storage Jar - Probably a Massachusetts Potter

Ex-Curry Collection

6 1/2" Tall

Photo Courtesy: Willis Henry Auctions - Marshfield, Ma

It appears whoever this potter's business was made a variety of products with similar incised decoration around the neck or lip. I have also seen pitchers, jugs and ovoid storage jars with this type of decoration in multiple glazes. All are assumed to have been made in southeastern Massachusetts. I consider them all rare today.

Early19th Century Red Earthenware Pitcher - Probably a Massachusetts Potter

However, I recently came across a storage jar made by this potter or business with a glaze that matches a known Essex County pitcher. I have always questioned if the pitcher was made at the Tarbell Pottery (after 1775 until 1819) in Beverly, Massachusetts, but I never had any real proof of it. The reason I have suggested the Tarbell Pottery is because of shards I found on the Bass River in Beverly that are similar in glaze to the pitcher. The only businesses that are known to have operated in Beverly were the Hayward family (late 17th century up until 1744) and Charles A. Lawrence's business that operated from 1866-1906. Although the shards could have also have come from the dozens upon dozens of potters who worked just to the west of Beverly throughout Essex County in Danvers, South Danvers (Peabody) and Danversport in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

(Left) Late 18th or Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Pitcher - Probably Essex Country, Mass

(Right) Early 19th Century Red Earthenware Lidded Storage Jar - Probably a Massachusetts Potter

It has always been my belief that these straight-sided jars were made by the potters who worked in Bristol County Massachusetts (southeastern Massachusetts) because of a few known green glazed examples. These types of green glazes (seen above in first photo) are usually associated with the southeastern Massachusetts potters who worked along the Taunton River; however, I wonder if the potters in Essex County used similar glazes. The potter's industries in Essex County and southeastern Massachusetts were strongly related and intertwined - with many of the potters belonging to the same religious sect - that being a strong Puritan faith. There were marriages that overlapped into both industries. It's realistic to say that similar ideas and styles traveled between the two industries because of family relationships.

I am not totally saying these storage jars were made in Essex County, but I am saying I can see an obvious glaze similarity between the pitcher and the lidded storage jar above. If these are in-fact the same potter - then the green glazed storage jar above must have been made in Essex County. If that's the case, it could be proof that green glazes were also done in Essex County that were similar to the glazes of southeastern Massachusetts. 

I can use the potter, William Pecker of West Amesbury (Merrimacport), Massachusetts as an example - Pecker worked during the same period as all of these products. Pecker has always been associated with his traditional brown (manganese) and pumpkin orange glaze; however Pecker did use a green glaze that only a few examples have survived from today. I personally only know of two green glazed forms from Pecker that have survived, but it is proof that potters did use green glazes - just some used it more than others. It was a costly glaze since potters made it from copper. It all depended on a potter's economic means with how much it got used. It was also probably a more costly product for the consumer.

You can see one of those green glazed Pecker forms in the article I wrote for the October 2013 edition of the New England Antiques Journal. Here is a link to that report.

I guess there are many opinions in what direction this report can go in, but I do think the above pitcher and nearly matching glazed storage jar is very interesting. What do think?

Much More to Come...