Find: Large-Sized 19th Century Red Earthenware Mixing Bowl Found in North Reading, Massachusetts

"Beginning in the late eighteenth-century potters in Great Britain began manufacturing vessels of yellow firing clay - and with that  it mind, the trade began to spread. By the early nineteenth-century, potters skilled in yellow ware manufacture began to emigrate to the United States…By the latter half of the 1820s it began to gain popularity in America. Yellow ware was being produced en mass in New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont, New York and Maryland in the 1840s and 1850s. Undaunted by the Civil War, yellow ware reached its peak of production in the 1860s and 1870s. It then lost favor to white ware and the newer technology that allowed decorative porcelains to come into being.  Although yellow ware was produced well into the 1930s, for antiquity sake, the turn of the century saw the demise of this so-called utilitarian ware." (Yellow Ware: The Transitional Ceramic, Schiffer, Joan Leibowitz, 2002)

"The introduction of molds and mass production revolutionized the output of yellow ware. England exported huge quantities until the 1870s, when gas-fired kilns increased American production, causing a sharp decline in English imports. Larger, more automated factories were able to produce a wide variety of wares that were described in and sold through catalogs. From the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s, many of the bigger potteries were concentrated in Ohio, especially in Roseville, East Liverpool, Cincinnati, and later Crooksville. English potters had emigrated to the Midwest, and their experience, along with the area's abundant clay deposits, helped the factories thrive." (Kitchen Ceramics, Abbeville, Slesin, Rozensztroch & Cliff, 2007)

19th Century Yellowware Mixing Bowl 

Either an English or an American Potter

Height: 6 1/8" Tall

Diameter: 13 1/4" Across

Ca. 1820-1880

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

On my way home from an appointment in Boston this afternoon, I came across a very interesting orange glazed red earthenware bowl with an applied foot or base in North Reading, Massachusetts. The reason for all the yellow ware discussion is because this red earthenware bowl reminds of some of those products - and it may have even been made in immitation; however unlike those products, it is actually a red earthenware product probably made by a New England potter in the 1850s, 1860s or 1870s. There's also a chance it was made earlier - I am merely going by what the American utilitarian trends were in the nineteenth-century.

The bowl has been glazed in a bright orange colored glass-like glaze. This color orange was popular with potters in Peabody (South Danvers), Massachusetts; Merrimacport (West Amesbury) Massachusetts and Exeter, New Hampshire. I am not going to specifically attribute this piece, but I will say the crazing (cracking) in the glass-like glaze is usually what happened to glazes in Merrimacport than the typical glazes by potters elsewhere in Essex County or southern New Hampshire. I compared the orange glass-like glaze crazing on the bowl to a few known Merrimacport pieces in my collection - and it is very similar, if not identical.

It's even more interesting when you look inside the bowl where three distinct stacker marks (kiln furniture) are seen (see photos below).

A chip on the side of the bowl shows the clay color is very similar to what is expected with clays of red earthenware products made throughout Essex County, Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

Specifically in Merrimacport, the Chase family was an active group of potters using this glaze color; although the Joseph Reed Pottery in Peabody (South Danvers) and the Lamson Pottery in Exeter were also known for applying this type of color to some of their products. If I was forced to choose - I would lean heavily towards a Merrimacport attribution, but I am not positive of that so don't hold me to it.

These photos below depict the actual color of the bowl. It is really this bold!

 19th Century Red Earthenware Bowl - Probably a Massachusetts Potter

Found Today in North Reading, Massachusetts

Height: 6" Tall

Diameter: 12" Across

Ca. 1840-1880

 Interior of Bowl

Partially Glazed Base or Foot of Bowl

 Notice the Three Distinct Stacker Marks from Kiln Furniture at the Bottom of the Bowl

 Wonderful, Vibrant Colored Orange Glaze

Again,  Notice the Three Distinct Stacker Marks from Kiln Furniture at the Bottom of the Bowl

Bowls of this size were not unheard of in Essex County; here is a link to a report I wrote in April of 2013 - that shows a bowl made in South Danvers (Peabody) before 1840 (likely before 1820) that was dug up on Boston Common in Boston by Boston archaeologists. It is all very interesting to see a bowl like this emerge in North Reading. I have never seen anything like it before; although I am confident it was probably made  in Essex County, Massachusetts or southern New Hampshire between 1850-1870. I think it's a great find!

Please Stay Tuned…Much More to Come...