A Large Seymour Pottery Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Jar that Recently Emerged From a Danbury, Connecticut Home

According to Lura Woodside Watkins' book, Early New England Potters and Their Wares, "Nathaniel Seymour built his kiln about 1790 at the southeast corner of Park Street and Quaker Lane in West Hartford (Connecticut). Until 1825, Seymour's output was wholly (red) earthenware made of native clay…A great deal of ware was produced in this pottery. Four men were employed to turn the vessels in such quantity that a kiln could be fired every week." 

Slip decoration had all but faded in the New England red earthenware industry by 1800; however the Seymour Pottery in Connecticut was one of the businesses that continued to carry its use into the nineteenth-century. Connecticut was the only state in New England that continued to use slip decoration on a regular basis well into the 1800s - and the Seymour Pottery can be credited as one of the businesses that kept that tradition alive at the turn of the nineteenth-century.

After 1825, the Seymour Pottery likely found it difficult to compete with the huge stoneware industry that was present in Connecticut and across Long Island Sound in New York City. Despite that downfall, I would like to point out that Watkins says, "…a kiln could be fired every week." That's an incredible statement - and it really shows how much production was happening at this business before 1825; although it is rather fascinating to grasp the idea that very-little from this business has survived today. There's just not a lot out there. I know of pieces in private collections and museums, but its certainly a small amount when compared to the production that Watkins describes.

Earlier this week, a jar surfaced from a home in Danbury, Connecticut that was found by a man who owns a salvage business. He was hired to clean out a home. All of the contents that were left were handled at his discretion. I do not know the specific details, but I was told the home was early. How early - or what their definition of early versus mine - is not totally understood.

Danbury is only a fifty mile distance from where this jar was originally produced in West Hartford. There's a chance this jar was in its original context. That's just an incredible potential provenance to me. Unfortunately, the lid is missing, but the jar itself is in incredible condition. Lids are what broke. They easily fell and got misplaced over the years. A missing lid doesn't really upset me, but it may others. Other than the obvious minor household wear - there are no condition issues to the jar. I am hoping to eventually find a lid that matches the jar, but in the meantime, it looks fine the way it is. I also feel this jar is a legitimate contender for an example of the red earthenware made at the Seymour Pottery before 1800 - it has that eighteenth-century feel to it. The front of jar is also decorated in a dab of slip decoration. The Seymour Pottery was known for dabbing and swiping slip onto many household wares, but products like milk pans, dishes, platters and plates usually had a more drawn out design. Many of the lidded jars were also sometimes numbered in slip in matching numbers (number on lid and number on jar) so the lid and the jar could be matched accordingly (as planned) when leaving the kiln. It is my belief the numbered pieces all date from the nineteenth-century. This jar is huge - standing over ten inches tall. I have never seen a jar of this size from the Seymour Pottery before.

It's a little off topic for this report - but I would like to share that a boldly slip decorated pitcher with a heavily ground down top (probably done because of chipping and damage done to the rim) sold for $15,000 at Sotheby's in January. It sold for the exact estimate the auction house placed on it. I was shocked when I read the results - I didn't think the pitcher had any shot at achieving such an estimate. I don't think this jar is even close to that same ballpark for value, but what I wanted to share with that auction result is the desire some collectors own for pieces made at the Seymour Pottery today.

 (Possibly Late 18th Century) Red Earthenware Jar Made at the Seymour Pottery - West Hartford, Ct

Possibly Ca. 1790-1799

Recently Found in a Home in Danbury, Ct

Stands 10 1/2" Tall

Base 7" in Diameter

Small Dab of Slip Added for Decoration

For more about the Seymour Pottery - I suggest reading an article the American Folk Art Museum in New York City Published in 2002/03. Here is a link - you may have to flip forward or backwards a few pages to find the start of the article.

Please Stay Tuned…Much More to Come...