The third installment from the short series I am writing this week taken from the red earthenware collection of Portsmouth, New Hampshire scholar and antiques dealer, Hollis Brodrick, introduces today, this vibrant colored eighteenth-century pan with wonderful squiggled slip decoration. I don't believe this pan was ever intended to be used as a milk pan like many of these forms are usually associated with today; however, I would rather call it a deep dish or a shallow bowl that could have fulfilled any number of household needs. The form really speaks to me explaining that it may have been used as an over-sized pie dish, but I do not have any real proof or recollection of a similar form identified in such a way. It's just my particular perception of how this pan may have been used. Truthfully, the dish could have been used however the owner wished.
Personally, I have never quite seen this combination of colors on a whole form before, rather, the only other example I know of today with a comparable color pattern was uncovered from an important privy in Portsmouth, New Hampshire a few years ago. This dish is decorated with a double-line squiggled slip decoration with green dots on three areas on the interior of the dish. It is also cast with a dynamic salmon-colored background glaze. The form, color and decoration are not typical styles that I can associate with many other objects that I have handled from private New England collections to national museum holdings. Visually, it seems like a rather rare style.
Hollis told me this piece was purchased some-time ago at a small auction in Dover, New Hampshire. He was told by the auction-house that the dish came from an old local estate; however, there wasn't anymore information provided from the auctioneer beyond that. It is important to take into consideration that this part of New Hampshire is filled with all sorts of period homes and architecture. There is no lack of local history considering much of the Piscataqua River Region in New Hampshire was settled before 1650 in the seventeenth-century. The area was home to many early craftsman with some households that desired the best European imports and quality domestic wares. These are the types of products that have been sought out by pickers, dealers, collectors, historians, curators and the like in this part of the state over the years.
From my understanding, this use of slip was predominantly a characteristic used by New England potters in places like coastal New Hampshire and coastal Massachusetts in the eighteenth-century. There is not a lot known about potters who worked in places like Maine or inland New England who would have applied slip decoration like this to a simple pan. I cannot recall any areas located a long distance inland from the New England seacoast before 1790, where slip was part of any specific business' regular output. Potters in those areas, usually produced forms like this that would have normally been sold with basic decoration or basic glazes. The more detailed embellishment was normally saved for more desirable forms. This bowl may indicate otherwise - the potter may have added slip in this case to make the bowl more attractive in an already competitive marketplace in a city such as Portsmouth.
It is known today that there was a large import system in place in Portsmouth's harbor in the eighteenth-century, which brought all kinds of European-made ceramics into the city. This bowl may be indicative of a potter who tried to make their products stand out in an already competitive marketplace with high-end ceramics. I wouldn't think it would make much sense that a potter would have to overly decorate their products if there was a demand, but no competition. Maybe this is what a potter needed to do to compete?
18th Century Hand-Thrown Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Pan
Purchased Locally at a Small Auction in Dover, New Hampshire Years Ago
Consigned from an Old Local Estate in the Portsmouth, NH Area
Consigned from an Old Local Estate in the Portsmouth, NH Area
Measures 12" Across
Stands 2" Tall
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
Another View of the Pan
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
Close Up View of the Squiggled Slip Decoration
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
A View of the Base Which Shows this Pan was Hand-Thrown
Photo Courtesy: Hollis Brodrick Antiques - Portsmouth, NH
The House was Moved in 1973
Photo Courtesy: Library of Congress - Washington, D.C.
18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Chamber Pot Uncovered in Portsmouth, NH
The Decorative Colors are Very Similar to the Pan Shown Above
Ca. Late 18th Century - After 1770
Possibly Made by a Local Potter
Photo Courtesy: The Portsmouth, NH Discovery Center - Portsmouth, NH
The color of this pan's glaze and the color of the slip decoration with the green dots is reminiscent of the following chamber pot that was uncovered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire a few years ago. I didn't realize until yesterday, that this chamber pot actually does have a notable context. I have posted this chamber pot before; however, I had previously only said that this pot was dug up by construction crews in downtown Portsmouth, but I have learned otherwise, realizing there is actually more to this story.
The chamber pot that is shown below was actually found in a privy in an eighteenth-century context on the property of Colonel Joshua Wentworth's original property (house built in 1770) between Deer Street and Hanover Street in historic Portsmouth. The Georgian-style Wentworth House does not reside on this property anymore since it was moved years ago to Strawbery Banke in 1973 becoming a part of that museum's collection of early homes. The reason the home was moved to its present location on Hancock Street was to rescue it from destruction that was happening in the city in the 1960's as part of Portsmouth's urban renewal project. Fortunately, the beautiful home was saved; however, what was not known in 1973 - was that there was a series of privies also associated with this house.
According to an article published on the website, SeacoastNH.com, "In 2010, Independent Archaeological Consulting (IAC) conducted fieldwork and analysis for Phase II of the Portwalk Project, a mixed-use development being built downtown on Hanover St. Using a combination of mechanical and hand-excavation, IAC discovered four privies, including one associated with the property of Colonel Joshua Wentworth, a prominent eighteenth-century merchant and patriot. In the process of excavating the privy, archaeologists recovered a dozen glass bottles, among them a green wine bottle with a glass blob seal marked "JOSa Wentworth 1773."
According to another article written for Seacoast Online, "The colonial privies yielded an extraordinary cache of Portsmouth artifacts according to Ellen Marlatt and Kathleen Wheeler, owners of Independent Archaeological Consulting. There was a wealth of high-end ceramics, according to their report, including Delft, Notthingham and English pottery, salt-glazed stoneware, Westerwald and Chinese Porcelain...This material, when studied by historians may be extremely valuable to understanding the daily lives of our predecessors around the time of the American Revolution. Most importantly, we know who these privies belonged...one privy as linked to the home of Colonel Joshua Wentworth (1742-1809), a renowned New Hampshire patriot and one of the city's wealthiest men."
After carefully examining the pan (shown above) and the chamber pot (shown below), I feel it is possible that both of these objects are related. I have studied a number of artifacts in eighteenth-century contexts in Massachusetts and there is nothing that I can recall that resembles the potter's or decorator's hand that was used to apply either of these slip decorations (pan and chamber pot). Unfortunately, the only eighteenth-century potters who worked in Portsmouth that I am aware of today were deceased according to the archaeological context of this chamber pot (after 1770).
This may be the case of an unidentified potter today, who worked in Portsmouth in the late-eighteenth-century - or (if related) the pot and pan may also have been exported from somewhere else, where there was an industry that regularly applied slip, such as nearby Exeter, New Hampshire (potters were employed in Exeter as early as the turn of the eighteenth-century and possibly earlier). Coincidentally, Portsmouth and Exeter do have strong ties to potters who worked in both locations between the eighteenth and early-nineteenth-centuries - by way of the Dodge family of potters, who expanded their company from Exeter to Portsmouth in the 1800's. This same family is also known to have expanded to Portland, Maine in this same period.
This may be the case of an unidentified potter today, who worked in Portsmouth in the late-eighteenth-century - or (if related) the pot and pan may also have been exported from somewhere else, where there was an industry that regularly applied slip, such as nearby Exeter, New Hampshire (potters were employed in Exeter as early as the turn of the eighteenth-century and possibly earlier). Coincidentally, Portsmouth and Exeter do have strong ties to potters who worked in both locations between the eighteenth and early-nineteenth-centuries - by way of the Dodge family of potters, who expanded their company from Exeter to Portsmouth in the 1800's. This same family is also known to have expanded to Portland, Maine in this same period.
Colonel Joshua Wentworth House - Portsmouth, NH
Built Ca. 1770
This is How the House Appeared Before it was Moved to Strawbery Banke in Portstmouth, NHThe House was Moved in 1973
Photo Courtesy: Library of Congress - Washington, D.C.
Colonel Joshua Wentworth House - Portsmouth, NH
Built Ca. 1770
This is How the House Sits Today After it was Moved to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH
The House was Moved in 1973
The House was Moved in 1973
Photo Courtesy: Google Maps
18th Century Slip Decorated Red Earthenware Chamber Pot Uncovered in Portsmouth, NH
The Decorative Colors are Very Similar to the Pan Shown Above
Ca. Late 18th Century - After 1770
Possibly Made by a Local Potter
Photo Courtesy: The Portsmouth, NH Discovery Center - Portsmouth, NH
I strongly believe both of these products were made in coastal New Hampshire; unfortunately, without proper sherds from a potter's site, it proves difficult to garner an accurate attribution. Typically, the most attractive slip decorated pottery is attributed to Massachusetts in the eighteenth-century and Connecticut in the nineteenth-century today; however, these pots may prove differently, showing the great skill that was accomplished around the New Hampshire seacoast after 1770.
Please Stay Tuned...There is plenty more from this collection to discuss later this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment