Ever since I began my quest for Beverly, Massachusetts-made red earthenware (probably considered a crossover form of art pottery by many today) a few years ago; I have always made a comparison with the products made at the Charles A. Lawrence Pottery in Beverly (Ca. 1866-1906) to the products made by the red earthenware potters (Eberly and Bell families) that worked in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia after 1870. It seems that both areas had a similar interest in the manner in which they creatively produced their products; all the while, each business also produced products that were completely unique to their industry.
In this report, I am going to show two pairs of urns; the first is a pair of urns made in the Shenandoah Valley that were used for garden planters (likely flowers); secondly, the urns made in Beverly (I feel) were likely strictly intended for home embellishment and formal decoration. All of these urns (or arguably vases) likely date from the same 1870s to 1890s period.
These first two photographs show a pair of red earthenware urns that Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates auctioned-off in Mount Crawford, Virginia in November of 2013; the urns were both made at the Solomon Bell Pottery in Strasburg, Virginia in the second-half of the nineteenth-century. They are both impressed with the Solomon Bell stamp. Previous to the auction, the urns were found in a basement in New Jersey. It's these types of discoveries in this type of a context that make the hunt for early American pottery or even antiques and collectibles in general so exciting today! Below, you will read about a similar discovery I made this past summer that is significant to this report.
The Virginia-made urns each stand just under fifteen-inches tall. They have been decorated in a light colored slip wash with brush strokes of copper and manganese for decoration and along the lip, the potter has decorated it with a pie crust edge. Both urns were hand-thrown by the potter. What's really striking about these two urns is the pair of lion's heads that have been applied to each urn for decoration. Both are beautiful examples of the decorative red earthenware made in Virginia during the Industrial Revolution. Coincidentally, Jeffrey S. Evans will be selling another pair of similar urns individually at a sale that will be held later this month in Virginia on Saturday November 15th.
Pair of Solomon Bell Pottery Red Earthenware Garden Urns Made in Strasburg, Va
Ca. Second Half of 19th Century
Each Stands Roughly 14 3/4 Tall
Photo Courtesy: Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates - Mount Crawford, Va
A View of Two of the Four Lion's Heads on Each Urn
Photo Courtesy: Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates - Mount Crawford, Va
The ensuing pair of urns were both found at an estate sale in Beverly, Massachusetts in June of this year; here is a link to the report I wrote about that sale. It was an extremely exciting day for me! The home was filled with all kinds of locally made nineteenth-century utilitarian pottery. I purchased all of it! I was told the previous owners had collected antiques for decades and much of it was purchased in and around the Essex County, Massachusetts area. It appeared to me that their collecting possibly began in the 1950s or the 1960s when locally made antiques were more abundant in their native area, which is less likely to be seen today as opposed to decades ago.
This pair of red earthenware urns was hand-thrown in a similar form to the pair of Solomon Bell Pottery urns shown above; however rather than the potter applying a glaze, these urns were actually painted by the artist, Thomas Pitman who was employed at C.A. Lawrence Pottery after 1870. The Marblehead, Massachusetts artist painted the majority of the products made in Beverly beginning in the early 1870s. Each urn is decorated with hand-modeled and hand-applied dots; if you continue to look, prominently placed on each side of the urn is a lion's head with ears that remind me of a rabbit's ears. The idea behind the lion's head decoration is just like that seen on the Solomon Bell urns above. While not as large as the Bell Pottery urns, the Lawrence Pottery urns certainly do resemble (to me at least) the Virginia-made planters in form, craftsmanship, color and weight. This is extremely fascinating to see!
19th Century Painted Red Earthenware Vases Made at C.A. Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Ma
Ca. 1870s-1890s
Both Found in June of 2014 at an Estate Sale in Beverly, Ma
Both Measure Roughly 10 1/2" Tall
A View of Two of the Four Lion's Heads
The Ears Remind Me of a Rabbit's Ears
I don't know of anywhere else in America in the late-nineteenth-century where a related red earthenware form was made with applied lion's heads on an urn or even a vase; so it is extremely interesting in an attempt to understand why potter's businesses so far apart by both distance (more than 550 miles) and geography (coastal and inland) could share similar characteristics. These are not the only similarities I can show from these two areas and their post-1870 red earthenware products either. I will admit it, this is a rather fascinating study to me!
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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