EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: June 2014

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Late 18th or Early 19th Century Stoneware Evidence Revealed at the Siteof William Pecker in Merrimacport, Massachusetts

Ceramics in America published the first article about William Pecker stoneware made in Merrimacport, Massachusetts about a decade ago. A few examples are known to have surfaced in the past decade or more. All are marked with Pecker's name and sometimes his place of operation (Merrimacport). I briefly discussed the idea again when I wrote an article about William Pecker in the October 2013 edition of the New England Antiques Journal. In that report, I showed an example of stoneware that was pulled from a Newburyport, Massachusetts (only a few miles from Merrimacport) home. I had felt the jug could have been made by Pecker despite a lack of mark. It shared characteristics with some of the known stamped Pecker forms - and it also had a nice local provenance.

I have also heard theories over the years why so few examples of Pecker's stoneware work have surfaced. These are a few of those theories:

1) Pecker had traveled down to New York City and he experimented with stoneware production there.
2) Pecker traveled to Charlestown, Massachusetts and he experimented with stoneware production there.
3) Many have felt the stoneware was not manufactured in Merrimacport.

I never felt any of these theories were correct. I always felt Pecker made stoneware in Merrimacport.

Today, my nephew, Jason and myself traveled to Pecker's place of operation. Last summer, we visited this area and we found what we believed to be kiln bricks near Pecker's home; however today we took a different approach. We went quite a ways to the west of Pecker's home (up the Merrimac River towards Haverhill). It was probably an eighth of a mile from where we were last year. We climbed down a steep cliff to the Merrimac River that must have been twenty to thirty feet high. The cliff had begun to erode from bad storms that disrupt the river. The cliff was full of wild rose bushes and thick brush - so it was difficult to make our way around - and to see what we were doing. It was also high tide - so we were knee deep in water. What we found is incredible! We discovered a trash pile that had begun to emerge with erosion. We did not dig for any of these artifacts, but rather took what was on the surface. To my amazement, we found plenty of stoneware shards and kiln furniture. It is now my belief that not all of Pecker's stoneware was signed and there are likely pieces out there today that are actually Pecker products, but people do not realize what they are. It appears Pecker's products take on both German and English influences. I also believe that Pecker was making stoneware more regularly than people realize. I am not disclosing the whereabouts of this location because of its fragile nature, but it is incredible! Absolutely amazing!

My Nephew, Jason at the Base of Where all the William Pecker Shards Were Found

The Cliff Is Probably 20-30 Feet High

Shore of the Merrimac River that the Cliff Drops off at

Behind this Brush is Where We Found Some of the Kiln Waste

This is Part of the Cliff Where all the Shards and Kiln Furniture were Found

We also found plenty of red earthenware kiln furniture, kiln wasters and shards. The glazes are incredible - none would normally be associated with Pecker today. For example, I saw milk pan shards and crocks that would probably be attributed to Maine potters today. The glazes included metallic black, green, pea green, maroon, gold, brown and so on. I can only imagine how many more there are. A lot of shards were extremely thickly potted (upwards of half an inch thick). I will report more on this subject soon enough, but for now - take a look at the stoneware. I'm fascinated by this! All the shards appear salt glazed.

Likely William Pecker Stoneware Shards and Kiln Furniture

All Found Near Pecker's Home in Merrimacport, Ma
All Were Found as Part of a Waste Pile that Appears to be a Part of a Cliff

Stoneware Kiln Furniture

Stoneware Shard with Cobalt Blue Decoration

Stoneware Shards

Stoneware Shard

Exterior of Thickly Potted Stoneware Shard

Interior of Thickly Potted Stoneware shard

Interior of Stoneware Shards

All the red earthenware shards were found with the stoneware shards so I assume they are all the work of William Pecker's business. It's just incredible to see this!

We also discovered that the area is loaded with proper clay for red earthenware production. It's all over the place at the base of the Merrimac River. My nephew easily rolled up a bunch of clay balls.

Clay that Appears Suitable for Red Earthenware Production Near Pecker's House

Clay Ball that my Nephew Rolled Up

It makes me wonder (and hopefully you) how many of these examples are actually out there that have no Pecker mark and are actually attributed to places like New York City, Connecticut and Charlestown because of their appearance. I think it's a likely theory.

William Pecker Stoneware Jug - Merrimacport, Ma
Ca. 1795-1820
Purchased from a Serious Stoneware Collector in Springfield, Ma

One of the Marks of William Pecker

Please Stay Tuned…Much More to Come...

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Any Thoughts? -- A Porcelain Teapot Purchased in New England More Than 30 Years Ago

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was regarded as a place of ceramic innovation in the nineteenth-century. Many of the potters were considered cutting edge when compared to their industry counterparts elsewhere in America. Porcelain was among those products. The Tucker (Porcelain) Factory was in operation from 1826 until 1838 - so products from this company are considered very-rare today with the Philadelphia Museum of Art owning a huge portion of the known examples. I don't believe I have ever seen a piece before outside of a museum; although I could be wrong.

Tucker Factory Porcelain Coffee Pot

Made in Philadelpha, Pa - 1826-1838

Ca. 1830

Measures: 8 3/4" x 6 3/8" x 9 1/2"
Photo Courtesy: Philadelphia Museum of Art - Philadelphia, Pa

This here is an example of porcelain my parents have owned for decades - actually before I was even born. They bought it locally in a shop on coastal Massachusetts. They have always felt it could be Tucker porcelain, but they have never been sure of it. It is in the form of a large teapot. It has some damage on the spout and lid that occurred before my parents purchased it.

I can certainly see similarities between the teapot my parents own and that in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Any thoughts? I am not a porcelain expert. It definitely looks correct in decoration.

19th Century Handled Porcelain Teapot

Purchased More than 30-Years Ago in an Antique Shop on Coastal Massachusetts

Height: 5 3/4" (Tallest Point)

Length: 8 3/4"

Handle of Porcelain Teapot

Both Sides of Porcelain Teapot Are the Same

Lid of Porcelain Teapot

Lid and Base of Porcelain Teapot

Spout and Lid of Porcelain Teapot

Interior of Porcelain Teapot

I can probably bring this to Dish Camp in New York this weekend if anyone wants to see it. Let me know!

Much More to Come...

A Recently Found Red Earthenware Elephant Figure From a New Hampshire Barn

A few days ago, I wrote about tulip ware predominately made by the potters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. To do a quick refresh about this subject; sgraffito (decoration scratched) decorated plates adorned with tulips can achieve as much as $351,000 - which happens to be the most expensive example of American red earthenware ever sold. The result was achieved at a Pook and Pook Auction in Downington, Pennsylvania a few years ago.

Often, tulip decorated products can set the market for how American utilitarian pottery is viewed in museums and the marketplace. Aside from tulip ware, red earthenware figures made by potters in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern states in the nineteenth-century are also highly collectible from this region - more specifically, it was a form that was mastered by potters in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Prices can achieve numbers in the hundreds up through the tens-of-thousands-of-dollars. The figures range from typical household animals like cats and dogs - to exotic animals such as lions, parrots and rhinoceroses - and even the expected animals native to this county like squirrels, chickens and deer. People are even sometimes the subject of such forms. It is very difficult to properly attributed some of these forms to a single potter. The most desired figures usually had a base placed at the bottom.

A friend and mentor of mine - who lives in Pennsylvania has actually told me stories about the Hobo Potter - who reportedly made figures in exchange for a bed to sleep in at night…etc. The need in which he made his products is similar to an antique field known as Tramp Art. Tramp Art was also done by hobos and exchanged for similar needs as the Hobo Potter. If you can envision the idea of a potter making such a skilled, but also unique figure for a clean bed to sleep in at night - that's quite an interesting story. This is true American folk art to me. The Hobo Potter wasn't necessarily a traditional potter. I'm not even sure if he was a trained potter or a self-taught potter, but it is certainly an interesting story. This was all supposedly happening in Pennsylvania sometime after 1850 and possibly even 1860. I bet the Hobo Potter would be in shock to see what his art sells for today.

The most prominent potters known to make figures were likely the Bell family of potters who worked throughout Pennsylvania and Virginia in the nineteenth-century. It is in my opinion that many of the figures known today are difficult to properly attribute; although the Bell family figures often possessed unique characteristics, which help with an accurate attribution.

For an important comparison - I would place many of these figures in a similar category as the mid-level tulip ware products. They don't achieve six-figure numbers, but they certainly often garner prices into the thousands of dollars - which indicates how desired they are today.

19th Century Red Earthenware Deer Likely Made in Pennsylvania

Ca. Third Quarter of the 19th Century

Height: 8" Tall

Length: 6 1/2" Long

Ex Collection of Kelly Young & Pauline Heilman

This is the Typical Type Base that I Discuss Above

The Deer Has Been Hand Modeled

Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm, Inc. - Sparks, Md

I recently found an elephant figure of an unknown origin. It was purchased at a local flea market by a dealer who had recently found it inside a box in a New Hampshire barn. I asked him if he knew anymore information, but he said he did not. He told me the figure appeared to have quite a bit of age to it.

I can see five distinct characteristics in the elephant figure:

1) It is molded.
2) It has a base similar to many of the Pennsylvania-made figures.
3) The clay is the color of red bricks - which is how the clay color appeared on many products made by Maine potters.
4) The elephant has been glazed brown, which was also a popular glaze color with many Maine potters. In Maine, they may have used the color brown more than black to distinguish their more common glazes from the New Hampshire potters - who often used black (manganese) glazes.
5) The elephant figure can certainly share the allure of a lion figure sometimes made by Pennsylvania potters. Both are considered exotic.

I provide two separate types of lighting in the photos below to show how the elephant appears. It is a little darker in person - even though the photos give a good idea of its appearance. I have handled a number of Pennsylvania and Virginia-made figures - and the weight of this elephant is in keeping with those products.

Probably 19th Century Red Earthenware Elephant

Origin Unkown

Found Recently in a New Hampshire Barn

Height: 3 3/4" Inches Tall

Length: 3 1/2" Long

The Elephant is Molded

The Base is Similar to the Base Seen on the Deer Above

Clay Color is the Color of Many Maine-Made Red Earthenware Products

The Elephant Appears to Have a Brown Glaze

Close Up of the Elephant's Facial Features

I have no proof that this is a New England-made product, but the mold seems almost experimental. It doesn't seem mastered. It has definitely been carved out of something. Could they have been making molded figures in New England (Northern New England) like they were in places like Pennsylvania and Virginia? It is certainly something to think about.

Please Stay Tuned…Much More to Come...

Sunday, June 22, 2014

A Few New Discoveries - A Tulip Decorated Crock and an Incised SouthernMaine Jug

I have a few new finds to show that my father and I came across today - the first is freshly discovered from a Dover, New Hampshire home. I have written extensively through the growth of this website about the use of tulips on red earthenware products made in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries. It's a style that is highly desirable in today's marketplace - and it's equally as rare. The demand is likely stronger than there are products that exist today. I don't typically discuss value here, but to give you an idea of the importantance of tulip ware - some highly decorated sgraffito plates are known to exceed $100,000. These are the products that are typically the standard when it comes to American utilitarian red earthenware. Very few are known to exist - and the Philadelphia Museum of Art owns many of them.

To our luck today, I came across a handled red earthenware crock decorated in slip with four tulips boldly placed along the body. I am not positive on the crock's origin; although the manner in which the tulips were made is very-similar to tulips applied by some potters in Pennsylvania. The base has turned black from all the exposure it has seen over the years from an open flame. The crock is thinly potted and has an eighteenth-century feel to it. I am thrilled to own this piece!

The form reminds me of a similar style that was made in coastal Massachusetts throughout the eighteenth-century. The form dates back to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth-centuries and was especially popular in Essex County.

Likely 18th Century Red Earthenware Handled Crock

Four Tulips in Slip Decorate the Crock

Found in a Home in Dover, NH

The Crock is Highly Accomplished and Thinly Potted

Stands 10 1/2" Tall

One of the Four Tulips

The Handle Is Very Well Done

The Handled Crock is Colorful

The Base is Blacked from Use Over an Open Flame

19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Plate with Tulip Design
Berks County, Pa Origin
10" in Diameter
Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm, Inc. - Sparks, Md

19th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Plate with Tulip Design and Multi-Colors
Dryville, Pa Origin
8 5/8" in Diamter
To Be Sold at July 19, 2014 Sale
Photo Courtesy: Crocker Farm, Inc. - Sparks, Md

My father and I also found a brown glazed and brown speckled red earthenware jug that was made in southern Maine. What really stood out to me about this jug was the faint incised straight and wavy line decoration that is very rare to see today from a Maine potter. I have seen similar, but bolder incised shards in a trash pile at the site of the Bickford family pottery in Buxton, Maine - but those are only shards. I cannot recall ever seeing a Maine product still in-tact with this type of decoration on it before. I don't necessarily think this jug is related to the Buxton business, but it shows that the potters in Southern Maine were using the incised wavy and straight line technique that was first made popular in the eighteenth-century in Essex County, Massachusetts. It was also used by the potters in Southeastern Massachusetts. The technique was also used outside of New England.

I actually feel the jug was made in either Hollis or Alfred, Maine - it was also not found far from either of these places - as we discovered it in a Southern Maine shop. It was sold as merely a brown redware jug. Separation in the glaze is also seen - which is often attributed to Maine products here in New England.

I have seen a similar faint wavy and straight line decoration on shards from unglazed flower pots made at the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Hews Pottery in Weston, Massachusetts - that are kept at the University of Massachusetts Archaeology Department in Boston; however I do think there is any relationship between those shards and this jug. The glaze, handle, neck and foot are all indicative of Maine's red earthenware industry after 1820.

19th Century Maine Red Earthenware Jug

Possibly Made in Alfred or Hollis, Maine

Ca. 1820-1860

Stands 6 1/2" Tall

This Type of Handle is Usually Associated with Southern Maine Potters

Notice the Faint Wavy and Straight Line Decoration

I have plenty more to tell!

Please Stay Tuned…Much More to Come...

Saturday, June 21, 2014

An Unexpected Estate Sale in Beverly, Massachusetts

This morning I woke up in anticipation of exploring a new flea market that I had never visited in Revere, Massachusetts just off Route 1 a few miles north of Boston. Unfortunately, the flea market was a bit of a disappointment seeing that is was not the typical type of flea market that I am accustomed to today: however, I decided to take a bit of a detour on my ride home, where I visited some of the yard sales, which were scheduled to take place in Beverly, Massachusetts. Fortunately, I had thought ahead and I brought my local newspaper, which had all of the Cape Ann, Massachusetts yard sale listings for the day.

After about an hour and six-or-so yard sales later, I decided to call it quits for the morning; however I noticed two road signs, while driving north through Beverly en route to my home in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

According to the colorful signs, there was an estate sale nearby in Beverly that was scheduled to begin in less-than twenty-minutes. I figured "what-the-heck," so I drove to the sale a few blocks away. I was actually surprised when I saw a line of people waiting to get in. Naturally, I had to stop and check it out. All of the roadside signs stated that the estate sale began promptly at 9:00 am.

But I realized when I began to approach the driveway and the nineteenth century house, where the estate sale was held that it had already begun despite my phone saying it was still a few minutes before 9:00 am. The company holding the estate sale was taking people in by numbers based on the time that they had arrived earlier in the morning.

I walked up to the man standing near the checkout table in the paved driveway, who was running the sale and asked for a number - he handed me a piece of paper with the number 44 written on it in marker. As I walked away, the man yelled loudly, "…Numbers 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 can come in." Five minutes or so passed and he yelled again, "…Numbers 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 can come in." I would say that another five minutes probably passed and he yelled yet, again, "…We're gonna take a few more people - numbers 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43."

I was next in line - I anxiously awaited to hear my number yelled. Although, in the meantime I couldn't help and notice what people were buying as they made piles directly in front of me near the checkout table of what they had discovered. This was all definitely exciting; however, none of what I saw so far piqued my interest. But everything was definitely old.

While waiting, I asked the man running the estate sale the history of the property and the contents, and he told me that they had belonged to a 90-year-old couple, who lived in the home for decades. He said they first bought the house in the 1940s and they had raised their children in it. He also mentioned that they were antique collectors, who purchased their collection locally. But he also said the family was now liquidating the contents in various stages - this aspect of the estate sale sold the garden accessories, outdoor and utilitarian pottery, porch furnishings and the contents of the garage. The man told me that they were still in the process of determining what to do with the rest of the collection, which remained in the house; although, I assume that most of it will probably remain with family members.

My time had finally come. It was 9:17am when I heard my number yelled, "…Numbers 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48 can come in."

I walked in and quickly saw a number of antique wooden bird houses near the side of the house, which were nice, but nothing that I had to own. I walked directly into the garage first, where I found what might be an early-to-mid-twentieth century red earthenware bird house from Maryland; otherwise, I would say it was made in Georgia.

From there, I began to walk around the house to the backyard, where I was surprised to see dozens of pieces of pottery scattered throughout the yard. A number of the objects also appeared to have been locally made in either Beverly, Massachusetts or Peabody, Massachusetts in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century.

I quickly grabbed everything that I felt was made locally. I also assume that these objects had been acquired by the homeowners when they first purchased the property in the 1940s or 1950s, which may indicate that they were found within their original context of local ownership.

Note: I also found a nineteenth century red earthenware animal feeder at this estate sale, which I believe was made locally in Essex County, Massachusetts. This is a subject that I have been studying; whereas, I believe this type of local production would be lost today if it were not for these objects still remaining in these type of contexts. I believe this animal feeder would be attributed to another location today if it were found without a known history.

Estate Sale in Beverly, Mass.